


Throne of Blood and Sand

by LaceySolane



Category: The Mummy (1999), The Mummy Returns (2001), The Mummy Series
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-23 08:34:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 22,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13783731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaceySolane/pseuds/LaceySolane
Summary: Thrown into the desert, Ally comes face to face with a familiar truth: Those with strange deaths tend not to stay dead. It seems someone thinks it is still her responsibility to deal with those who come back wrong, and must fight to protect those who can't fend for themselves. But now her duty is shared.





	1. Chapter 1

The sun shone brightly, blinding her. She raised a hand to her forehead to shield herself from the glare, and try to make out her surroundings. But as soon as her hand covered the glowing orb, she saw walls around herself, and the stone roof overhead. She was inside a building. No sun to blind her.

Shallow clear water pools surrounded her. The room was vast, with rows after rows of pools leaving small paths in between themselves, and the flames from torches set at regular intervals lighting the space.

Pools and torches marked her path toward the end of the room, where a throne awaited. It was seemingly empty, yet not. A mist hung in the air above the throne, and as she focused on it, a shape seemed to come in and out of her vision. A man, she would say, dark skinned, and dressed very oddly. She couldn’t make out much more, as she didn’t approach the throne.

She looked around, trying to find out more about the room she was in, but the shapes of the walls and pools swirled and changed, and she was suddenly standing in a different place. It was open, sand and dust covering stone floors, and stone walls surrounded what looked like a yard.

A yard filled with snakes, coming from the walls toward her.

Snakes of all shapes and colours slithered in her direction, hissing, rushing from all around.

_What the fuck._ Her mind was still trying to catch up. She couldn’t remember how she got there. And her surroundings kept changing. She was trained to keep a cool head in unfavourable situations, yet… _Dream. It must be a dream. Remember. Feel. It is a dream._ She could feel the breeze, the sun, not blinding her now but warming her, somewhere above the horizon, she could hear the snakes and feel the ground lightly tremble at the mass of twisting forms coming at her.

A feather fell into her field of vision, mere inches in front of her, sliding lightly through the air. And then she noticed the weapon in her right hand. A long, tall, dark spear, with a head so black and shiny it reflected the sun. She wielded it with both hands, the feather coming to rest at the tip, and the snakes vanished. The world vanished.

Her back burnt.

It was a prickling at first, in between her shoulder blades. It was a familiar feeling, somehow, but it quickly grew in intensity, until it felt like she was sunburnt in one focused spot. It burnt.

* * *

 

She gasped, her hands shooting out to grab something, expecting a fight, but they fell on nothing but sand, falling through the gaps between her fingers. Darkness surrounded her, yet it was not the darkness of captivity, or the darkness of a trip underground. Stars twinkled, the moon hung in the sky, bathing her in moonlight.

She was alone.

She looked around, still lying down, and found herself surrounded by sand. Sand and more sand. No sea in sight, so not a beach.

Only sand.

She sat up, her brain offering her the information that _this_ was definitely not a dream.

She was in a desert.

She looked down on herself, grabbing the shawl lying on the floor behind her and wrapping herself with it. It was chilly in the desert. _Where am I? California? Colorado? How did I get here?_

Last she remembered, she was in Malibu, at a party. _Right?_ She shifted her legs, still sitting on sand, her dress bunched up around her thighs, her sneakers gathering grainy bits already. She remembered changing her shoes, uncomfortable after hours in heels. Then…

A breeze made her shiver, the cold making goosebumps cover her legs.

_I have to move._

She stood up, walking toward the top of a dune to try and find out more about her surroundings.

As she crested the dune, her expectations dropped. Nothing around but sand, dunes, some cliffs, and more sand. It looked like nothing she’d experienced before. It didn’t look much like America anymore.

_Where should I go? Is someone looking for me?_ As far as she could tell, she was alone. She would have to save herself. _Breathe. Focus. What do your senses tell you? Trust your instincts._

A soft light and muffled noise caught her attention. Up ahead in the distance, there was something _beside_ sand. She though there were only cliffs, but... _No. There’s something else there._

Her legs moved forward, shawl wrapped tightly around her arms and back, heading straight toward the light, as small as it was.

The noises grew in intensity as she approached what looked like ruins. _Definitely not America. They look… ancient. Almost one with the desert._ She could make out gunshots. Screams. Then they quieted, just as she was getting close enough to discern more complex sounds. She approached carefully, moving near fallen columns toward the centre of the ruins.

When she looked around a half destroyed wall toward the source of light, _A bonfire. No. Two, or more,_ a group of horsemen dressed in dark robes and headdresses left the ruins, armed to the teeth. She could barely make out markings in their faces. She stood still, hoping to go unnoticed. They didn’t seem too friendly. She observed, quietly, taking in the amount of weapons each of them carried.

Then one looked to the side, as if sensing her presence. He locked eyes with her, still unmoving as he rode away, then broke the stare to take in her appearance.

Then they left.

_Middle eastern. Desert people. Freaking **old** weapons, but not ancient. Where the hell am I? _

Knowing they weren’t coming back, she moved away from the wall and around it.

The floor was littered with bodies, men and horses alike. Some were dressed like the horsemen that had just left, others were dressed in light tunics and turbans, unarmed, apparently caught in the crossfire.

As she move closer, she noticed the rest of the people in the ruins. More men, most not middle eastern, most looking like the battle had caught them half dressed, stood with pistols, staring at her.

A tall man with striking blue eyes took a step toward her, a pistol in his hand, pointing downward but ready. “Who are you?”


	2. Chapter 2

"What is this place?" She wondered out loud, ignoring the man's question and observing the other men standing around. One of them still had shaving cream over half of his face. The one standing next to him had his halfway unbuttoned shirt out of his pants, blond hair ruffled around his face. Right across from him, a man in a dark shirt had his revolver still held high, a tie hanging down his front. A man wearing a fez held an umbrella as a shield on his side.

"Hey, lady, I asked a question. Who are you? How did you get here?" The same man insisted, taking another step toward her, but putting his pistol in its holster.

"I saw the light from the fires. I didn't know where else to go." She tilted her head, noticing a woman trying to get up from where she was strewn on the ground, near some dead men, clutching a rifle in her hands.

"Are you lost, ma'am?" The blond man with the untucked shirt approached her, putting away his pistols.

"I think so. What is this place? What happened?"

"Those desert people came in guns blazing, wanted us out." The same blond man answered, the guy with the shaving cream close behind. "Did they leave you out there in the desert?"

"No. I think most didn't even see me."

The blue eyed man that had talked to her first had approached the woman with the gun, helping her up.

"Hard to believe. You're not exactly… what someone would expect to find out here." The blond smirked, reminding her she was not dressed for the desert. She was cold.

"I didn't expect to find myself here." She shivered, something both men in front of her immediately noticed.

"You must be freezing, ma'am." The one with the shaving cream spoke up, his glasses hanging lopsided. "I have some spare clothes, miss…?"

"Ally. Just Ally. And thank you, I am quite cold. Not the best outfit to trudge through the desert." She grumbled, looking down on herself.

"How did you come to find yourself in the desert like this?" The blond asked her as they followed Shaving Cream Man to a tent.

"I have no idea." She answered honestly, smiling at the other man when he handed her some pants. "Thank you…"

"Burns. You're welcome, miss Ally."

She laughed, holding the pants to herself. "It's just Ally."

"I have a shirt. Wait a moment." The blond man intervened, walking over to a nearby tent to rummage through a bag. "Here." He came back with a shirt and an undershirt, smirking good naturedly.

"Thank you too,..."

"Henderson. Pleasure to meet you, Ally." He smirked a bit more widely before another man came to punch his shoulder.

"Leave the lady to get changed, Henderson." He nodded at her. "I'm Daniels, we'll be over there with O'Connell and the rest while you get ready." He pointed at the first man who had talked to her.

She nodded back and went behind another tent, hidden from view, to dress herself in warmer clothes.

When she went back to the group, she noticed there were only eight people, the rest, all men in tunics, were gathering the bodies on the other side of the ruins. The group she joined were mostly caucasian people, Americans if she was to guess.

With outdated clothes, all of them.

"There you are." Henderson smiled once she neared them, taking in the fit of the clothes. They were a bit too big on her, but she made do.

"How did you find Hamunaptra alone?" The woman questioned as soon as she was close enough, standing near O'Connell. She wore a flowy black dress, with long brown hair framing her young face.

"Hamunaptra?" Ally wondered, frowning lightly. She looked around once more, searching the ruins and noticing an entrance not far from them. "Is that what these ruins are called?"

"Ruins? We're standing in the…" The woman started, only for O'Connell to squeeze her shoulder in warning.

"So you don't know anything about Hamunaptra? Awfully inconvenient for you to find yourself here in the middle of the night then."

"You're telling me. Where are we, anyway? I mean, what country?"

All of them stared, wide eyed, for a long while. She knew it was shocking to find she didn't even know where in the world she was. Somewhere in the middle east, she guessed, but no idea where.

"You really have no idea." The woman approached her, her face twisting in concern and… pity?

"None at all. I just woke up out there not an hour ago." She wrapped her arms across her middle, noticing how most of them looked at her with pity. They looked suspicious, at least.

"I'm Evelyn Carnahan, Evy." The woman smiled, holding her hand out to Ally.

Ally's shoulders sagged, and she shook her hand. "I'm Ally. Nice to meet you."

"We won't be going back to Cairo yet, miss Ally." O'Connell intervened, standing behind Evy. "But we can take you with us when we leave."

"Thank you. I… really don't know why I'm here. Maybe I'll have found something by then."

"Come, you can rest with us over there." Evy told her and grabbed her arm, tugging her away from the group and toward a bonfire with some bedrolls around.

Henderson, Burns and Daniels walked off to the "other campsite" with the two men wearing fez. O'Connell and another man who introduced himself as Jonathan Carnahan, Evy's brother, joined the girls soon after. Ally lied down while O'Connell tried to teach Evy how to punch, and Jonathan slept with a bottle whisky tucked under his arm. She found rest evasive, even as she stared at the starry sky, and when the last of her companions fell asleep, she stood and walked around the ruins.

There had to be a reason why she was there, at that moment, with these people. She was pretty sure she wasn't only displaced in space, but also in time. Much longer than she'd ever been before. She didn't dare ask. She didn't dare reveal she was even stranger than they thought.

She climbed on top of a half shattered column and stood watch over the desert, alert. Those men in the dark robes would surely not come back the same night, but she felt better knowing no one would sneak up on the people sleeping below.


	3. Chapter 3

Ally woke up to O'Connell hollering from the base of the pillar, her head jerking up. She had been sitting still, her chin leaning down on her chest and her shoulders slumped inward. 

Oh, her back and neck were going to give her hell today. 

She jumped over the edge of the pillar, onto another destroyed column, and finally down to the ground next to O'Connell. He watched her with unsubdued interest, an eyebrow arched at her display. "What were you doing up there? How did you even get up there?"

"I climbed. I couldn't sleep for a long time. I could watch over the ruins from up there."

"Well, we're going down. If you want to come, you should grab something to eat first." He pointed at Jonathan, who was still sitting by what had been a bonfire. 

Jonathan handed her some dates before leading her down to a hole on the ground, through dark passageways and torch-lit halls. 

"This is the room where they made the mummies. It had been closed so long that when we came yesterday, the stench was unbearable. Of course, it could have been the Warden, too. Poor chap, ran head first in to a wall." Jonathan talked all the way to the room where O'Connell and Evy were already standing over a sarcophagus. 

Ally's blood ran cold. Something was very wrong. _I was sent here. There must be a reason I was sent here. There must be a reason I was sent to **this** time._

"Oh, I've dreamt about this since I was a little girl." Evy exclaimed, looking up at her entering the room with a wistful smile. 

"You dream about dead guys?" O'Connell inquired incredulously, standing beside the upright sarcophagus. 

Evelyn ignored him, not caring for his opinion on the matter. "Look, the sacred spells have been chiseled off." The brit woman announced, her hands hovering over the dark cover of the stone as she explained its significance to the rest of the team. "This man must have been condemned not only in this life but in the next."

Cursed. This place is cursed. _I need to get them out of here. But how can I convince them?_ "Evy…" 

Ally's voice was drowned out by the other men's. "Tough break" O'Connell shrugged, while Jonathan tinkered with a little box. 

"Yeah, I'm all tears." The shorter man opened the box, the cover turning into some kind of star shaped piece. He placed it into another star shaped groove on the ancient coffin. A lock. "Now, let's see who's inside, shall we?" 

"No, don't open it!" But O'Connell and Jonathan are already pushing the cover off. "It's…" _Alive_ , Ally was going to say, already crouched into a fighting stance. But a definitely dead, decomposing corpse sprung forward when the sarcophagus opened. It stayed unmoving. This is not the threat then? What else is in here? 

"Oh, my God, I hate it when these things do that." 

"Is he supposed to look like that?" The American frowned at the mummy, while Ally slowly approached them, inspecting the remains. 

Evy observed the body, Ally could feel her bewilderment from behind. "No, I've never seen a mummy look like this before. He's still... still..." 

"Juicy." The men said in unison, staring at the pile of bones and partially decomposed flesh. 

"Yes." The young Egyptologist was astonished, never having expected this from her adventure. "He must be more than 3,000 years old… and, well, it looks as if he's still… decomposing." 

O'Connell's eyes flickered from the brit to the brunette standing a few feet behind, next to the head of the cover of the sarcophagus. Her expression baffled him, taking in her transparent concern for the situation. Before he could comment on it, though, his gaze fell on the cover, the scratch marks surprising him more than the girl's face. "Hey, look at that. What do you make of this?" 

"My God, these marks were made with… fingernails. This man was buried alive. And he left a message." Evy looked up at Ally once, frowning a bit before looking back down. "Death is only the beginning. "

Ally's heart plummeted to the ground. _This has to be it. He is cursed. Buried alive. He will come back._ "We have to leave. This place is not safe." She finally reacted, taking a pike from the side and keeping an eye on the body before gesturing at the group. "Something is very wrong with this place. This… is not natural. It's…" 

"Don't tell you're scared of the stories of curses and the living dead." Evy grinned at her, amused at her concern for something that had been harmless for so long. 

"While I still haven't had to face a mummy, I've come to realize that those whose deaths occur in strange circumstances tend not to say dead." Ally snapped, itching to smash the corpse with the pike, her fingers tightening around it.

O'Connell eyed her hand and rose from his crouch, moving over to her. "Why don't we go back up? We're no Egyptologists, anyway." He grabbed her arm, the one holding the pike, and tugged. 

"O'Connell…"

"We'll wait for you outside." He turned his head at the siblings for a moment before yanking her after him. 

Ally huffed, annoyed, but unwilling to fight the man. 

Once outside, her took the pike from her and tossed it next to their "camp" before walking to the edge of the ruins. Ally trailed after him, silent, worry still crawling inside her chest. 

"So, what is it?" 

"What?" She played dumb, crossing her arms over her chest. 

"You know what." He tucked his hands in his pockets, gazing at the open desert. 

She sighed, knowing he would not believe her. No one would. Except those desert men, maybe. What if that's why they tried to get these people out? What if… "Something is wrong with that mummy, with that place. I know you don't believe me, she won't either, but you should close that sarcophagus and leave it there. Messing with these things… never ends well." She examined the dunes and cliffs, trying to spot the men in dark robes somewhere. If they were close… maybe… she could ask them. If this place was really cursed… who knew what consequences they would have to face for messing with the undead? 

She knew close to nothing about ancient Egyptian lore. Well, assuming most of the stories she'd read or heard were pure fiction, made up. Most lore was usually polluted with modern additions. Changed so much the stories rarely resembled what had originally been believed. 

"Sounds like you've got experience with… 'these things'" He watched her from the corner of his eye, still resolutely looking at the distance. 

"Yes." She shrugged and turned back toward the ruins. "Do you think I can convince her to leave it alone?" 

"Not in a million years. She's been dreaming about this place since she was a kid." His lips tilted upward a bit, a soft expression taking over his face. "I already told her there was something bad here, but it didn't make her any less resolute. No one can make her leave this place now." 

She smiled, shaking her head at the obviously infatuated man. "Then… let's hope I'm just paranoid." 

O'Connell went back inside the tunnels to watch over the Carnahans. Meanwhile, Ally moved to the back of the ruins, where the bodies from last night's attack had been buried. The weapons belonging to those men had been left on one side, half hidden, and she grabbed a couple knives and guns, strapping them to her body. She would probably need them at some point. 

The brunette girl climbed back up the pillar she'd spent the night on and waited for the rest of the people to come out. She wasn't sure she could stay down in the tomb without screaming at Evy to leave the dead alone. That woman was pursuing her lifelong dream. 

The Americans’ workers ran out of the tomb first, keeping to the sides of the ruins while they awaited. Their bosses left the tunnels before her brit companions, carrying small jars and a huge book with them. They waved her over when they spotted her up at the edge of the stone, mouths gaping open for a couple seconds when she jumped down. 

"What are those?" She asked as she approached the Americans, the Egyptologist accompanying them casting a suspicious glance at her and hugging the book tighter to his chest. 

"Canopic jars. We found them under a statue. We might be able to sell them for good money." Henderson responded, approaching with a smirk. It seemed like his default expression. "What were you doing there?"

"Watching over the desert. Just in case. I didn't like being… in there." She sat next to him, near the makings of a bonfire, Burns sitting on the other side of her. "Didn't see your friends from last night anywhere." She assured them, taking in their little nods as Daniels sat in front of them. 

"You didn't hurt yourself jumping down?" Burns wondered, gesturing toward the pillar she'd sat on. At her head shake, he adjusted his glasses, surprised.

"She's still young, children can take falls and bumps better." Daniels intervened, smirking at his friends. "No offense, ma'am, but you are pretty young, right?" 

"I'm almost twenty six." She deadpanned, all of them staring in astonishment. "I take it I look younger?"

"I'd have said nineteen at most." Henderson gulped, his lips twitching to an even more marked smirk. 

"Well, I'm well above twenty, and have been for a while." She shrugged and turned to look at Burns. "So you three are treasure hunters?"

"Yeah, precisely. We've been partners for a few years now." He confirmed proudly, straightening his back and smiling at her. 

"What do you do? You don't look like the kind to stay at home." The blond inquired, leaning forward, his elbows on his knees. 

"No. I'm an engineer and physicist." She responded, taking the easiest path. It would be better if they didn't know the whole extent of her job. 

"You're certainly a box full of surprises, sugar." Henderson's eyes shined with interest, receiving an arched eyebrow in return. 

Jonathan joined the group then, sitting down beside Daniels and watching the blond American flirt with their new friend. She leaned back on her hands while Jonathan talked the afternoon away, the sun soon setting over the horizon and making Ally climb back to her tower. 

Her chest felt heavy with a sense of foreboding. She said nothing to the excited woman below, though. 


	4. Chapter 4

Ally joined the others as they all gathered around the fire.

"Say, O'Connell, what do you think these babies will fetch back home?" Henderson flaunted his canopic jar as he sat in front of O'Connell, on the other side of the bonfire, Burns next to him.

"We heard you boys found yourselves a nice, gooey mummy. Congratulations." The bespectacled man held back his laughter, withering a bit under Ally's glare.

Daniels wasn't done teasing the blue eyed man, though. "If you dry that fellow out, you might be able to sell him for firewood." He did laugh, his friends joining him, even O'Connell faking some laughter to ridicule them for their behaviour.

Jonathan and Beni, a scrawny and greasy guy wearing a fez, stayed quiet through the conversation beside their American friend.

"Very nice, gentlemen. Very mature of you." Ally chastised, sitting on the empty space on O'Connells right and receiving a nod from him in return.

The brunette looked away from the group as Evelyn walked closer, excited about something once again. This trip was probably better than Disneyland for her. "Look what I found!" She exclaimed.

"Lemme guess, something dead?" Ally quipped, smirking at the brit. The other playfully rolled her eyes before sitting on the other side of O'Connell. Beni had been promptly kicked out of the seat a second before.

"Scarab-skeletons. Flesh eaters." She announced, holding her hands out for all to see.

"Knew it." Ally snorted, leaning forward to better look at the things in Evy's hands.

"I found them inside our friend's coffin. They can stay alive for years, feasting on the flesh of a corpse." She smiled, and somehow managed not to make it creepy. Her face is too sweet for that, Ally thought, watching as Jonathan and O'Connell each took one of the scarabs from the woman. "Unfortunately for our friend, he was still alive when they started eating him."

"Talk about a painful death…" Ally murmured, lowering her eyes to the ground while the Americans listened to Evy with rapt attention.

O'Connell held one of the dead scarabs up. "So somebody threw these in with our guy and then they slowly ate him alive?"

"Very slowly." Evelyn agreed.

"Well, he certainly wasn't a popular fellow when they planted him, was he?"

Ally shook her head, catching Evy's gaze. "He did something very bad, to be punished like this. I don't reckon this was a common way of killing criminals back then, right?"

O'Connell smirked at her, amused. "Well, he probably got a little too frisky with the pharaoh's daughter."

The brit laughed and continued explaining. "According to my readings, our friend suffered the Hom-Dai, the worst of all Ancient Egyptian curses, one reserved only for the most evil of blasphemers. In all my research, I've never heard of this curse having actually been performed."

A shiver ran down Ally's back and she fidgeted in place, catching Burns' gaze as he looked at her worriedly.

"That bad, huh?" O'Connell didn't seem to notice the brunette's anxiety, his voice still carefree.

"Yes, well, they… they never used it because they feared it so. It's written that if a victim of the Hom-Dai should ever arise, he would bring with him the ten plagues of Egypt." Evy revealed, her voice as a storytellers, engaging her audience.

Ally jumped to her feet. "Well, that's it, I'm torching that sucker. Anyone has salt and gasoline?"

O'Connell grabbed her arm and forced her down until she was sitting again, not letting go. "Calm down."

"Don't tell me you believe in all that?" The librarian smiled at her, certainly enjoying her apprehension.

"You have no idea how many of the things people take as tales are actually true." The brunette whispered, shrugging the grip on her arm off but wrapping it around her knees, knowing she couldn't do anything while they were all awake.

Burns moved to squat beside her a bit later, when the others scattered around. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. It's… can't you feel that something is… I don't know… going to happen? Like we're about to get thrown into a giant clusterfuck of evil things?"

The man blinked at her foul language, but seemed to think over her question. "This is the City of the Dead. There's always been rumours about a curse and traps. It's supposed to feel like that, I think. It is the final resting place of many. A legend, truly. Rumours say Egypt's greatest treasure is hidden under these sands."

"But... " She couldn't explain the sense of evil. Not just danger. Evil. It was around them. It was under them. She knew. "I don't know…" She sighed, finally.

"You should rest. Henderson saw you standing guard over the city last night. You must be tired." He squeezed her shoulder lightly and left to sleep in his tent.

In the end, O'Connell made her lie down around the fire near their equipment. He kept a constant eye on the girl, and somehow, she fell asleep, as if her body was ordering her to rest, to prepare for what was to come.

 

Ally awoke to a chilling breeze, the howl of the wind imitating anguished, espectral voices. She stirred in place, propping herself up on her elbow, the camp still mostly silent. Nothing seemed to be out of place at first sight.

Then she heard Evy's quiet voice, and turned her head to look at the woman. She spoke in a strange language. O'Connell was sitting beside her.

Ally's heart pounded. It sounded… it felt… like power. Her words held power. She was doing something…

The brunette moved and saw the book under Evy's hands, and rushed toward her, intent on shutting the book. "Evy, stop!"

And then the growl came. It came from under the sands, from the mouth of the tomb.

"No!" The Egyptologist man accompanying the Americans rose from his bedroll, his face twisted in terror. "You must not read from the book!"

The wind picked up once more. The camels started grunting, shifting in their places, nervous.

Something was coming.

As everyone in the city rose from their slumber, Evy, O'Connell and Ally looked toward the skies, a sound above the wind approaching from the horizon. A black mass rose above the dunes, moving fast toward the city. It buzzed, alive.

"Run!" Ally's screamed when everyone seemed to stand frozen, taking Evy's arm in one hand and O'Connell's in the other and yanking them toward the entrance of the tomb.

She let go of them once she'd thrown them inside the tomb, standing on the side of the entrance to make sure the Americans made it through. Then she ran after them.

"Where the hell did they come from?!" Burns cried as he ran after her, torch in hand.

"I ain't waiting around to find out!" Henderson stopped for a moment as the tunnels separated in three different ways. Ally almost crashed into him, a bit blinded by the torch, before he grabbed her hand and tugged at her as he set out running again.

They came to the edge of a high drop soon, and Henderson was running to fast. Ally pushed her heels into the ground and grabbed his shirt from behind, pulling him away from the plunge while extending her arm to the side so the others didn't tumble over the edge. She jerked him back, and he came falling backward onto her, making her slump on her ass. "Close call." She grunted as his weight pushed her down while he tried to turn around, his eyes wide with the sudden increase in adrenaline.

He managed to shift and fall down on his back beside her, his chest rising and falling with his rapid breathing.

And everything was quite for a little while.

She looked up at Daniels hunched over behind them, panting, and searched for the last of her American companions. "Where is Burns?" She sat up in one motion, jumping to her feet to look further behind the dark haired man. No one else was following them. "Where is he?" Her eyes snapped to Daniels. He was the one running closest to Burns back there.

Both of them looked around, suddenly noticing the absence of their friend.

"Fuck!" Ally pushed Daniels to the side and ran back the way they'd come.


	5. Chapter 5

"Burns!" Ally called, her feet moving faster than they had when she'd been surrounded by the Americans. She moved through the tunnels without really knowing where she was going, her heightened senses helping her see the walls and obstacles before she crashed into them. She was fairly certain at least Henderson had tried to follow her, but she didn't hear his footsteps anymore.

Moaning caught her attention as she moved through yet another tunnel. She stopped in her tracks, listening to the sounds. A few feet from her was the entrance to another room of the underground city. Familiar glasses lied broken on the dusty ground before the arched door.

"Burns." She whispered, following the moaning sound into the room. He stood with his back to her, pained sounds coming from him. Was he hurt? "I've finally found you. You gave us quite the scare." She approached and placed her hand on his shoulder.

A rock sliding somewhere to their left caught Ally's attention. She turned toward the noise. Evy stumbled down a slide, looking all the bit frightened. "Evy! Where did you come from?" She moved toward the other girl, checking for injuries and helping her stand.

The brit clutched her friend's hand. "The wall moved and I fell back. Oh, thank goodness. I was just starting to get scared."

"Don't you worry. Burns is here too, we just have to find the others." Ally smiled reassuringly and pointed at the other man, still looking away.

Evy moved toward the American, leaving Ally to examine the wall for a faster way to reach the others.

"Mr. Burns. I see you too have lost everyone else." The brit was a bit breathless, her hands fidgeting as she came closer to the man.

More moaning from him caught Ally's attention just as she managed to move a piece of the wall loose. She was grateful they weren't paying enough attention to her to notice her unusual strength.

Evy screamed when Burns turned to reveal the gaps where his eyes and tongue should have been. He tried to speak, his words coming out distorted, muffled by the woman's scream. "My eyes… my eyes…"

As Evy backed away in terror, a shape emerged from the shadows, growling. It was a deformed shape, barely humanoid, bones and tendons creating a disturbing outline. The librarian scrambled away from the undead figure, backing toward the wall farthest from it. Meanwhile, Ally tried to push the wall loose enough to separate it from the rest of the rock formation. She needed something big.

"Please help me." She heard Evy beg, at her or Burns she didn't know.

"My tongue… he took my tongue…" Burns had fallen to the ground and was trying to move away from the growling monster, too weak to fight. He was in pain, unlike anything he'd ever felt before.

"Please don't leave me." The librarian begged again, her plea giving Ally enough strength to crack what was left of the wall.

"Anck-su-Namun?" The creature muttered before a rock wall crashed into him,

Dust and debris rose as silence took over the hall once more. Ally ran to Evy, grabbing her hand and moving with her toward the entrance.

"There you are! Will you quit playing hide-and-seek?!" O'Connell came barging into the room, rifle in hand.

"Get her out!" Ally ordered as she pushed the woman toward O'Connell. Her head snapped back toward the pile of rocks on the corner of the room as they started moving. "Fuck."

The rocks exploded, the mummy rising from the rubble.

"Woah!" O'Connell stopped in his tracks, standing before Evy. The creature locked his gaze - _Burns' eyes_ \- on the blue eyed man, slowly taking him in. No one breathed for a moment. Even Burns, who Ally had been trying to reach, ceased all noise.

"Evy!" Jonathan burst in, Henderson and Daniels behind him. As soon as he saw the monster he dropped his torch and halted, heels digging into the sand.

The creature roared at the people filling the room, causing Burns to flinch. Ally grabbed his hand, squeezing in an attempt to calm him. When O'Connell roared back and shot the mummy, she brought her injured friend's arm over her shoulders and made him stand. She had to get him away from that thing.

"Move!" O'Connell ordered, everyone following behind him.

Ally and Burns were the last to go out of the room, his weight, while manageable for her, still slowing them down considerably.

As they finally caught up with the rest of their companions, she saw they had stopped right outside the tomb. The dark robed warriors from the previous night were pointing their weapons at the group.

A man stepped forward from among the warriors, pulling the scarf covering the lower half of his face down so he could speak. His cheeks held strange symbols, some kind of written language unknown to the girl. "I told you to leave or die. You refused. Now, you may have killed us all, for you have unleashed a creature that we have feared for more than three-thousand years."

Ally dropped Burns beside Henderson. She queezed the blond's shoulder in compasion and he nodded at her, silently thanking her for looking after Burns. She moved away, letting his friends hold onto him as O'Connell spoke up. "Relax. I got him." He assured, ignorant of the little effect a gun had on the undead.

"You didn't." Ally intervened. "Your gun did nothing but give us a little bit of time. I threw a wall at it and it still did nothing but slow it down."

"No mortal weapon can kill this creature." The warrior scolded the American man.

"Nothing?" Ally questioned, stepping a bit closer to the man. "Fire? Silver? Something?"

He frowned at her, confused by her suggestions. "He's not of this world."

"Yeah, walking dead, but there has to be something…" She insisted, before the man pointed at Burns, cradled between his friends.

"The creature couldn't finish his work with that one. Leave, all of you, quickly, before he finishes you all." He stepped around Ally, his men doing the same. "I must now go on the hunt, and try and find a way to kill him."

"I'll help you." Ally offered, before stopping at his withering glare. She knew they held no real malice. Their attack the previous night was now clear to her. The needed the people to leave this place alone.

"I already told you, I got him." O'Connell repeated as he grabbed the girl's arm, glaring back at the warrior until his gaze left the girl.

The warrior sighed heavily, a huge burden weighing down on his shoulders. "Know this: this creature is the bringer of death. He will never eat, he will never sleep, and he will never stop." He hissed and turned back to follow his men.

Ally wanted to follow them, to repair what she had failed to avoid, but O'Connell yanked her after him. He was oddly protective, in a rough way. He only let her go when she grabbed her discarded dress for around their camp, and ripped a big strip from the bottom. She approached the American's and tied the material around Burns' eyes. "So the sand doesn't hurt you more on the way back." She told him softly, taking hold of one of his hands for a little while.

Henderson placed a hand on her shoulder as she made to leave. "Thank you." He murmured, not wanting the injured man to hear. "For taking care of him. We didn't." His jaw clenched, guilt eating at his insides.

"You couldn't have done more."

If she couldn't help the warriors in the City of the Dead, she would have to find a way to fix this in the city. A plan formed in her head, familiar, oddly comforting for the severity of the situation.

 _Research_.


	6. Chapter 6

Ally rode on Evy's camel, behind the librarian. O'Connell seemed to judge this as a good way of keeping an eye on them both at the same time. She occasionally scrunched her face at him, like a child rebelling against a strict guardian. He rolled his eyes in response and kept riding.

The rest of the time they travelled, Ally pondered about anything that could result useful in bringing down the mummy. Shooting at it was useless, as they'd already found. Which, she thought, was a pity, seeing how trigger-happy her American friends were, the lot of them.

_They're really living up to the stereotype._

Hitting it with hard things didn't seem to do much either. She should try fire next, but she recalled the desert warrior's words. _No mortal weapon can kill this creature_. So they needed… an immortal weapon? Not something easily available right then.

_I need to get somewhere I can look up Egyptian lore. A library or… museum? Evy said she works at the Cairo Museum. I'll start there._

Her thoughts flew back to the desert warriors. She feared the monster would kill them, and it would have been her fault. Partially, at least. Firstly, for not stopping Evy and the others. Secondly, for not going with the warriors after the creature.

She looked back the way they had come, her teeth biting down on her bottom lip. Hamunaptra was far out of sight, no trace of it in the horizon. They'd been riding for the rest of the night and part of the morning.

"Hey, Ally." O'Connell called to her, bringing her out of her musings.

"What?"

He brought his camel closer to the girls', subtly gesturing at the other Americans riding ahead. "Are you going with them?"

"I thought we were all going to Cairo?" She tilted her head, confused, glancing at Evy in question.

"After that. They're leaving for America. You are American, right?"

"I've lived there most of my life. But no, I'm not leaving. I have things to do." She stared right into his eyes, conveying her resolve.

He sighed, but somehow understood he could not sway her opinion. He'd done it once, when she'd insisted they left the sarcophagus alone, and look where that got them. He brought a hand into one of his pant pockets and then held it out for her. "Here. You'll need it." It was money, several notes folded into a roll.

"O'Connell…"

"You'll need to eat, at least. Take it. And call me Rick."

She ended up accepting the notes, smiling softly at him. "Thank you, Rick."

For a while, nobody else talked. They caught up with the Americans, riding side by side. She took the chance to look at Burns, travelling with Henderson, still very much in pain. Everyone was in a pitiful mood. Of course, they might have brought the apocalypse upon the world.

" _I used to rule the world…_ " She started to sing quietly, face looking straight ahead. " _Seas would rise when I gave the word, now in the morning, I sleep alone_ " Evy turned her head to the side to look at her, surprised at the sudden song, but quite pleased at the same time. " _Sweep the streets I used to own. I used to roll the dice, feel the fear in my enemy's eyes, listen as the crowd would sing. Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!_ " Her voice had gained some strength, and everyone was listening intently by then, tiny smiles drawn on their faces at the change of atmosphere. " _One minute I held the key, next the walls were closed on me. And I discovered that my castles stand upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand. I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing, Roman Cavalry choirs are singing. Be my mirror, my sword and shield, my missionaries in a foreign field. For some reason I can't explain Once you go there was never, never a honest word. And that was when I ruled the world._ "

Her voice seemed to bring them all some peace for a while. Once she was done, Jonathan took over, singing some old English song, his sister chuckling quietly as he messed some of the words up.

And for over two days, they rode.

* * *

 

Her ass was awfully sore by the time they reached Cairo. Ally hugged Evy goodbye, waved at the other men, and squeezed Burns' hand before setting off to find the museum.

She had work to do.

* * *

 

The shock of being thrown back in time was worse than ever. At Hamunaptra, with her new companions, it hadn't been as pronounced. But in the middle of the streets of Cairo, she was starting to feel the heaviness of being so far away -in time and space- from everything she knew.

When she finally reached the Cairo Museum, she found a newspaper lying on top of a counter near the entrance. She sucked in a breath, taking in the date. _1926_. She blinked the tears gathering in her eyes away and moved further into the museum, looking for an archive or library.

"Can I help you?" A voice came from behind her, a short man with greying beard and a fez covering his balding head approaching from down the hallway.

"Oh, yes. If you could tell me where an archive with books on the City of the Dead could be?"

The man frowned a bit before covering it up while clearing his throat. "I'll take you there, miss…?"

"Ally."

He led her toward the other end of the hallway and up some stairs, constantly glancing at her from the corner of his eye. "Miss Ally, I mean no offense, but you do know the city does not exist, right?"

"Oh, yes. I'm… uh, I'm researching for a book I intend to write. I'd like it to be set on Hamunaptra, but I fear I know next to nothing about it." She smiled charmingly, thanking all Higher Powers for the easy lie.

They entered a quaint library. Bookshelves were set in a circle, even though most where empty, books piled on top of one another on a couple tables. "And do you happen to know Arabic or Ancient Egyptian?"

"Uh, no. Sadly, not yet." Her face fell, sensing that would reduce her number of sources.

"Well, most of our books about the City of the Dead _are_ in one of those languages."

"Oh. Mr…?" She started, Plan B forming in her brain quickly.

"Dr. Terrence Bey." He finished, nodding reassuringly.

"Dr. Bey, I'd like to start with whatever sources are in English, French or Spanish. I'll take Latin, even. Then… could I borrow any of the books, or take pictures? I have a friend who might be able to translate them for me."

Dr. Bey sighed and shook his head. "I can't let you borrow them yet, not without a file with your information. But you may take pictures."

She smiled with honest gratitude. "Thank you, Dr. Bey. Thank you so much."

"You're welcome." He nodded once before separating some books for her and leaving the library.

* * *

Dr. Bey went to check on her and put some books in their shelves some time later, observing the girl attentively all the while. She pretended not to notice. The curator was worried about her interest in Hamunaptra so soon after the Carnahans and that other American expedition had set out to find it. It could prove fatal.

Footsteps out on the hall caught his attention and he left to see who it could be.

Ally straightened in her seat when she heard a familiar voice. _It can't be…_ She quietly walked to the door, peeking outside and catching sight of the desert warrior that had told them about the creature in Hamunaptra.

"What brought you here, Chieftain? I wasn't expecting a visit from you yet." Dr. Bey inquired, his voice betraying his concern.

 _He knows the man. He knows what they do_.

Before the Chieftain could respond, his eyes caught glimpse of a figure coming out from the library. The girl who had offered to help them in Hamunaptra was leaning against the doorway.

"Come to research too?" She asked, making the curator jump in fright at the sudden voice.

"Research?" The warrior wondered, confused as to her presence there without the rest of the expedition.

Dr. Bey considered the girl once more, surprise mixing with fear at the implications of her knowing the Chieftain. "Do you know each other?"

"She was with the expedition that brought the Creature back to life." The other man responded, his hard glare meeting its match on her eyes.

"I didn't…" She started to defend herself, if only to prove she was trustworthy.

The curator had paled, his trembling voice drowning out hers. "It is alive again?"

Dropping the glare, the Chieftain set his eyes on the shorter man. "Yes. We couldn't contain it long. Something must be done."

Ally threw her arms out in exasperation. "That's what I was trying to do!"

"You have done enough." The warrior growled, his patience running thin.

She stepped toward him, her own temper getting the best of her. "I tried to stop them! I told them those things tend to not stay dead! I tried to stop _it_ too!" She was only a couple feet from him, the curator watching both from the side.

The robed man's eyes narrowed, moving closer. "How would you know that?"

She matched his furious gaze, hands turned to fists at her sides. "I've fought enough undead things to realize that. And I know there's always a way to kill them again."

Both men lost their breaths for a moment at her revelation. Images of her appearance when he'd first seen her outside the ruins, in a short white dress ran through his mind. They hadn't seen her arrive with the other expeditions. They had all been closely watched. She hadn't been with them before they had attacked the group in Hamunaptra.

She had turned up out of nowhere.

"Who are you?" He whispered hoarsely, his head pounding with all the theories.

"I'm Ally. And I've been sent to kill that thing."


	7. Chapter 7

Dr. Bey had decided the hallway was a much too public space to discuss the matters at hand. He shushed them both and gestured for them to follow him. They entered a smaller room, an office by the looks of it. Dr. Bey sat behind the desk, on a plush leather seat, while the Chieftain stood by his side. With a gesture from the curator, Ally sat on another chair on the opposite side of the desk and awaited the questions.

"Why don't you… uh" The curator cleared his throat again, glancing at the warrior for a moment to see him glaring at the girl again. "What did you mean you were  _sent_  to kill the Creature?"

The girl blinked, fidgeting in her seat and placing her hands on her lap. "Uh… I woke up in the desert not far from Hamunaptra the night you and your men attacked." She nodded toward the warrior. "I'd never been in Egypt before. One more thing I can cross of my bucket list." She shrugged, her eyes taking a distant look, mentally going through the list.  _Kill a mummy_  at the top of the list.

"What else?" The dark robed man inquired, his own mind reeling.

"Uh… Well, I assumed, given the time and place I was dumped on, my task on this world involved dealing with whatever was under that city." She blinked up at him, as if that made perfect sense. "I've been  _sent_  to other places before, always in time to deal with some… unnatural catastrophe."

"How could a little girl do anything to  _deal_  with the Creature?" The younger man asked with a hint of incredulity in his voice. He was containing his temper. The last few days had been challenging for everyone.

"First of all, I'm  _not_  a little girl. I'm twenty-five. And I'm much stronger than you may believe." She crossed her arms over her chest, daring them to laugh at her.

Instead, the warrior's eyes widened slightly. "You threw  _a wall_  at the Creature…" He remembered her words from the Hamunaptra, and their later discovery of a large pile of broken stone in one of the halls of the Undercity.

Ally nodded, glancing at the curator to take in his reaction, but he just stared, too dumbfounded.

The silence was cut short by the sound of thunder, followed by the ground trembling as the skies outside the window came alight. At first, she thought it was lightning, but a burst of fire falling rapidly from the clouds above brought her out of her chair. She shoved the warrior aside to let her reach the window and she cursed under her breath. " _If a victim of the Hom-Dai should ever arise, he would bring with him the ten plagues of Egypt..._ " She repeated, aware of the presence of the Chieftain close behind her.

"He's here." The low rumble of the warrior's voice sent shivers down her spine.

She squared her shoulders and turned to look at him. Gone was the glare. "We have work to do."

* * *

The curator brought out all the sources he owned regarding the mummy  _Imhotep_ , which had remained hidden, away from the library, away from civilian hands. Any texts in English, French or Latin were given to Ally, while the other two men examined those she couldn't understand. She sat herself on top of a table on the side of the office, cross-legged and surrounded by books and rolls of parchment. She ignored the curious looks from the men, and took notes on a pad given to her by the curator.

When the curator left to get more information from the library, the warrior openly stared at her, still trying to understand the extent of the girl's abilities.

"What's your name?" She cut his train of thought, looking up from the book on her lap.

"Ardeth Bay."

"And you and your… group -and I assume Dr. Bey is part of it too- have been watching over Hamunaptra for a while, right?"

"The Medjai have guarded the City for over three thousand years." He nodded, frowning at the feeling of failure that followed that statement.

"So once we kill this thing, you'll be on vacation?" She tilted her head, the fountain pen in her hands tapping against the book to the rhythm of 'We will rock you'.

"The Creature cannot be…" He started, his frustration seeping off his pores in waves, before she cut him off.

"We will kill him." She assured him as confidently as possible, trying to get him to relax a bit. "I promise, we'll kill him."

Ardeth let out a puff of air, some tension leaving his shoulders at her words. She looked so sure, like she'd gone through this before and came out winning, that it comforted him on a basic level. It was odd, given he was the leader of his people, to be reassured by a woman so young.

Their conversation ended with the return of the curator, signaling at them to follow him to an exhibit on the other side of the museum. A pharaoh's sculpture riding a chariot took the spotlight, where Dr. Bey told them he kept some of the documents regarding Seti's reign. Fitting, given it was his exhibition. They helped the curator move a huge chest from beneath a mantle covered table, Ally single-handedly bringing in up to a stone counter so it was easier to search.

The curator seemed to be suspicious of her unnatural strength, murmuring something at Ardeth a few paces away from her, before the arrival of a group interrupted them.

"You!" Evy exclaimed at the sight of the warrior, Rick, Henderson, Daniels, and Jonathan bringing their pistols out to point at him.

"Hey, hey, guys, relax. Put those things away." Ally intervened, positioning herself between her friends and the Medjai.

"Ally!" Henderson lowered his weapon first, surprised at finding her there. "What are you doing here?"

"Miss Carnahan." Dr. Bey spoke up before she could answer. "Gentlemen."

"What is he doing here?" The brit woman asked with a threatening undertone, looking over Ally's shoulder.

"Same thing as I. Put those guns down." She hissed at the rest of the men.

Rick holstered his gun too, receiving a grateful look from the girl. "After what I just saw, I'm willing to go on a little faith here."

As the rest of the men followed him, Ally stepped back to stand beside Ardeth, leaving the explanations to them.

The curator gestured for everyone to make themselves comfortable, pointing toward a sitting area inside the exhibit. While Henderson and O'Connell took the two ornate chairs in the space, Ally sat herself on top of a chest between Ardeth and Evy, Jonathan standing on the chariot behind her.

"We are part of an ancient secret society. For over three-thousand years we have guarded the City of the Dead. We are sworn at manhood to do any and all in our part to stop the High Priest Imhotep from being reborn into this world." Dr. Bey explained, angry at the people who had made them fail in their task as he sat himself on a third extravagant chair next to Ardeth.

Ardeth took over, his voice much less furious yet full of scorn. "And now because of you, we have failed."

"And you think this justifies the killing of innocent people?" Evy countered, shaking her head in disapproval.

Ardeth glanced at the girl beside him, receiving a shrug indicating she agreed with her friend.

"To stop this creature?" The curator retaliated, bringing the warrior's attention back to him. "Let me think…"

"Yes!" Both Medjai responded, a huff coming from Ally in response.

Evy walked away from them in deep thought, perturbed by the gravity of the situation. O'Connell, meanwhile, raised his hand. "Question. Why doesn't he like cats?"

Dr. Bey responded in an impatient teacher voice, as if everyone should already be aware of the answer. "Cat's are the guardians of the underworld. He will fear them until he is fully regenerated."

"And then he will fear nothing." Ardeth finished and startled when Ally jumped up beside him.

"That's perfect!" She squealed, hopping in place excitedly. "Let's go get each of you a kitty! It'll be just like a protective charm, but better!" She pointed at Henderson and Daniels, who were astonished at her change of demeanor. "And we have to get one for Burns. Where is he, by the way?"

No one answered for a beat, everyone looking at her in silence. When she realized the meaning of his absence, her face fell and her movements stopped, sitting back down in her eyes set on the floor.

Evy stared at her friend in pity before looking back at the guardians of the City of the Dead. "When I saw him alive at Hamunaptra, he called me Anck-Su-Namun." Ardeth and Dr. Bey shared a serious look but made no comment. "And then just now in Mr. Burns' quarters, he tried to kiss me."

The curator's voice was quieter this time. "It's because of his love for Anck-Su-Namun that he was cursed. Apparently, even after three-thousand years…"

"He is still in love with her." Ardeth finished, his hand coming to the back of the curator's chair, theories swirling through his mind once more.

"Yes, that is very romantic, but what has it got to do with me?" Evelyn wondered, nervously picking at her necklace. Ally looked up at her as comfortingly as possible, trying to transmit that she wouldn't let the mummy hurt her.

"Perhaps he will once again try to raise her from the dead." The warrior supplied, talking only to Dr. Bey.

"Yes." The older man whispered. "And it appears he's already chosen his human sacrifice." He spoke up louder.

Everyone looked at Evy, who stepped back from the shock. Even her brother leaned forward on the chariot. "Bad luck, old mum."

"Nothing is going to happen to her." Ally stated, nodding at the woman.

The curator rose from his seat, his eyes unfocused as his mind worked on a plan. "It may just give us the time we need to kill the Creature."

Ardeth looked up and Ally followed his gaze, rising as he moved forward. "We will need all the help we can get. His powers are growing."

From behind Ally, Jonathan recited from the Exodus. "And he stretched forth his hand towards the heavens and there was darkness throughout the land of Egypt." The sun disappeared into a round halo as the eclipse bathed them all in shadows, and white flashes exploded behind Ally's eyelids, and headsplitting pain bringing her to her knees.


	8. Chapter 8

She was on the open yard, surrounded by snakes once more.

A feather fell into her field of vision, mere inches in front of her, sliding lightly through the air.

She had a spear in her hand. It didn't reflect the sun, as it was was hidden behind a halo of fire.

The feather rested on the tip of the spear, and the snakes vanished. All but one.

The yard changed into the room filled with pools. She still held the spear, but nothing charged at her. On the other side of the room, the throne called to her. It wasn't empty either. The mist had gained some mass, the shape was more pronounced, but it was still difficult to make out the real identity of the one who sat on it.

She took a step toward the throne. The world vanished.

* * *

Ally opened her eyes to find Ardeth hovering above her, one of his arms behind her back. She blinked, trying to recall how she found herself in that position. A few more faces watched from behind Ardeth's head, all looking concerned.

"What the fuck?" Were Ally's first words as she placed a hand on the ground and tried to prop herself up.

Someone laughed above, her bet was on one of the Americans, and Ardeth let go of her and leaned back. She sat, rubbing at her face to clear her mind.

"You gave us quite the fright, dearie." Jonathan commented from beside his sister, who had nearly slapped the girl in panic when they couldn't wake her.

"I gave myself quite the fright." The brunette muttered as she started remembering the headache. She couldn't help but link it to the eclipse. But why just her? What was its significance? "But I'm alright, don't worry."

A hand appeared in front of her, Henderson's. She grasped it and he helped her stand, ready to catch her if she fainted again. Once she made sure she could stand just fine, she turned to the rest of the people. "How long was I out?"

"Just a couple minutes." Rick answered, a hand on Evy's arm where he'd had to stop her from hitting the girl. "What happened?"

"A vision of some kind, I believe. I've had it before. But I can't make heads or toes of it." She shrugged and walked to the counter with the chest to get her notepad and write down everything she remembered. She recorded every difference she could think of when comparing it with the previous vision. Her hand scribbled quickly, abbreviations and symbols replacing words on the paper so she could get it out her mind faster. Once finished, she tore the piece of paper and folded it to stick it into her pants.

"So, what's next?" She turned to the group, leaning back on the counter and crossing her legs at the ankles.

"Get back to her cat." Daniels piped up, pointing his thumb at Evy.

"Alright, go, stay safe." Ally nodded at them, knowing they needed that cat to stay alive.

"We'll go with them and try to cook up some plan." Rick moved toward the door, Evy, Jonathan, and the Americans in tow, but stopped when he realized she wasn't following.

Ally shook her head and gestured toward Ardeth and the curator. "We've got research to do. Have to find a way to kill Imhotep. Go."

"You're not coming?" Henderson moved closer to her. "What if you faint again?"

"I'm not alone. The mummy is not after me, or them. You stay safe, we will find a way to get him out of your asses." She smirked and, impulsively, hugged him. "I'm sorry about Burns."

"Me too. Stay safe." He repeated before following the rest of the group out of the museum.

* * *

The day moved slowly in the shadows of the eclipse. Ally and Ardeth poured over more scrolls in the Seti I exhibit while the curator moved from his office to the exhibit and back, reading all the while, as he searched anything pertaining the Hom-Dai.

Ally rose from her seat, still examining the latin parchment in her hands as she approached a torch holding statue on the side of the room. She brought the Roman parchment up, shapes revealing themselves behind the ink when held against the light.

"Hey, Ardeth. Take a look at this." She glanced over her shoulder, the warrior rising to meet her. "Hold it against the light." She passed the parchment to him, and stood close as he observed what she'd discovered. "Hieroglyphics?"

"Yes." He looked at her, surprised at her resourcefulness. "But I can't translate them. I'll give it to Terence."

She nodded and made to move back to the desk, but something caught her attention first. Ardeth left, unaware her mind was elsewhere, and she approached the tablet displayed on the counter furthest from the entrance.

It looked like a piece of a wall, and the label beneath it said it'd been retrieved from Karnak. The edges were framed by several carved symbols, hieroglyphics she couldn't read as much as she wanted. At the center of the stone stood the silhouette of a man. He wore a long hat of some kind, and seemed to be holding something in his hand, but the image was quite deteriorated.

"Yes, I see, it speaks of… _a plague upon mankind, an unholy flesh eater, with the strength of ages, power over the sands, and the glory of invincibility_." The curator's voice brought the girl out of her reverie, just as Ardeth and Dr. Bey made their entrance. He was holding the parchment she'd been studying, his voice hurried and excited.

"So the mummy can control sands?" She asked, approaching the desk once more and trying to shake off the familiar feeling the tablet had brought to her.

"I fear so." Dr. Bey answered, extending the parchment and transcribing the symbols he'd read onto another blank page beside it. "And it's stronger than any human."

She snorted at that, making Ardeth frown at her. "Well, so am I, but I'm guessing I still shouldn't go up against him without a plan."

"And we still don't have one." The warrior sighed, starting to pace behind his comrade.

"Uh… I've been thinking."

"I was hoping you would." The curator quipped, still writing on the now mostly full page.

She frowned at his sarcasm and pouted when she caught the smirk on the Chieftain's lips before he could conceal it. "Very funny. Anyway, I've been thinking," She glared at the younger man, who wisely kept his face blank. "And all this started when Evy read from that weird book. The Book of the Dead? If we could find what exactly woke him…"

"We might be able to put him back to sleep." Ardeth finished for her, stopping in his tracks.

Dr. Bey halted his writing and stared at her, shocked. "That's… quite brilliant, actually."

"I think the Egyptologist that accompanied the Americans has it."

"O'Connell was going to find him. He should be able to get the book." The Chieftain continued pacing. "We'll have to wait till he brings it back."

She nodded and scratched her arm, her whole body itching by that point. "Is there a restroom or… somewhere I can wash up here? I haven't been able to since before Hamunaptra."

The curator had gone back to transcribing the parchment and waved his hand at her. "Uh, oh, yes, near my office. Hmm, can you show her?" He glanced once at Ardeth before focusing on his work again.

The warrior nodded at her to follow him and lead her back toward the office, grabbing a set of keys from a jar on the bureau and moving to a locked door on the side. He held it open for her to go in and closed it to search the bookshelves. The office held various volumes regarding the Book of the Dead and the spells that it held, funerary rites and myths gathered from several sarcophagi.

"Holy fucking shit!" A shriek coming from the restroom tore through the silence of the office, and the warrior rushed inside, expecting the Creature to be attacking the brunette.

Instead he found her holding a shirt to her chest and looking at him with wide eyes, frozen in shock. She stood with her back to the mirror, he hair and skin wet, only her trousers on.

"What happened?" He asked, purposefully avoiding looking anywhere under her neck.

She turned around and showed her back to him, gulping before regaining her voice. "That."

He let his eyes dip down, noticing the drawing between Ally's shoulder blades immediately. A tattoo, with ink as black as the ones on his face. The design was much different. He got closer to examine it. He could make out a feather and… a lance, by the looks of it. They crossed at the base, forming an X. Unconsciously, he lifted a finger to trace the design, wondering if it would smudge, but removed it when he felt her shiver in response.

"I didn't have it before." She spoke in a quiet voice, barely louder than a whisper. She turned back around, still hugging the shirt to herself. "Do you recognize it?"

"No." He didn't know where to look. In the end, he settled on her face. She looked thoughtful, her eyes unfocused somewhere on shoulder, and he took his chance to examine her expression once more.

She looked very young. She said she was twenty-five, and he had a hard time believing. While she looked young, he felt she'd lived through too much for such a short lifetime. Somehow, he thought she had to be older.

Her nose was dotted with freckles, darkened by the desert sun he was sure she hadn't covered her face from. She was tall, maybe a couple inches shorter than him, and he could make out lean muscles on her shoulders and arms, visible in her state of undress. Which was suddenly brought to attention when she cleared her throat and tightened her hold on the shirt.

"I should finish washing up. I'll tell Dr. Bey about… this when I'm done." She turned her back once more.

"I'll go tell him. Uh… join us in the exhibit when you're done."

The Chieftain of the Medjai left the restroom and office in a hurry, before she could notice how flustered he'd become.

Before he entered the exhibit, a thought crossed his mind. _She is awfully foul-mouthed._


	9. Chapter 9

Ally returned to the exhibit to find Ardeth sitting across Dr. Bey on the desk, talking in quiet voices about the tattoo. When they noticed her presence, the curator rose from his seat and handed her the transcription of the hieroglyphics from the Roman parchment, before busying himself with the chest on the counter.

Ally sat in the recently vacated seat and picked the fountain pen again, gathering the transcription and the notepad she’d been using before. “Anything on the tattoo?” She asked, looking at the warrior hunched over his scrolls.

“No. He’d never heard of anything like that before.” Ardeth responded without raising his head, his focus on the scrolls.

“Great.” Ally sighed and watched the curator. “Do you think it’s related to Imhotep?”

“Could be.” The older man answered as he approached the desk with a handful more books and scrolls. “But I can’t remember ever reading anything that connects both. It could be completely unrelated. Or not. If it is unrelated, we could ask the elders about its meaning. They might know more.” Dr. Bey frowned when the younger man didn’t even lift his head at the suggestion.

“The elders?”

“From our tribe.” Ardeth cleared, still refusing to look up.

Ally and the curator shared a confused glance. Dr. Bey’s face soon turned amused and he scoffed before leaving the desk once more.

They worked in silence for a while longer before Ally’s eyelids started dropping. She rubbed her eyes and stifled a yawn.

“Have you slept since the Creature was awakened?” Ardeth asked, finally looking at her. He noticed the darkness under her eyes, and tried not to think of anything but how exhausted she looked. When she shook her head, but kept on scribbling on the notepad, he covered the parchment she was studying with his hand. “You must rest. We will have to fight the Creature soon, you will need your strength.”

He stood up and held his hand out. Hesitantly, she dropped the fountain pen and took his hand, letting him guide her to a two-seater sofa on the other side of the chariot with Seti’s statue. It was out of his field of vision from the desk, so he’d grabbed a couple books and paper to take with him. He sat on one end of the couch, as close to the armrest as possible, and indicated for her to make herself comfortable on the empty space. “If the Creature comes, it’s better if we are not separated.” He reasoned even though she hadn’t asked, and focused on the books when she started smirking.

She fell asleep almost instantly, even sitting up with her legs tucked under her as she was.

* * *

The desert stretched out as far as her eyes could see. It wasn’t nighttime, but the sun was still hidden, the orange glow of the eclipse similar to that of twilight. The sands beneath her feet trembled, a sign of the impending danger. The wind picked up, and she looked down when she noticed the grains prickling her bare legs.

She wore a dress, white, like the time she arrived. But this one had a different design, and was held together with straps of gold and adorned with lapis lazuli ribbons. On her feet, simple brown sandals protected her from the scorching sands.

She held a spear once more, but it lacked its customary feather. Not a second after she realized this fact, she felt slight weight of something on her head, and she carefully touched what seemed to be a feathery headpiece. Not absent, then.

Spear and feather. Like her tattoo.

The tremors intensified, and she looked around in search of _something_ , anything to warn her of what was to come. Suddenly, a shape rose behind a dune, a big round something that _slithered_ her way.

A snake.

Unlike the ones she’d seen before, this one was gigantic. Its head was the size of a cow’s body, and the tail elongated for over fifteen feet. Sharp teeth became visible as the serpent approached, and she dropped to a fighting stance.

Golden eyes locked onto her grey ones, and with a hiss, it opened its mouth and lunged at her.

Her vision flashed, and she was lunging forward on the pool room, crouched with the spear thrust forward, pointing at the throne.

And there, before the previously misty space, stood a man. He had a thick beard covering part of a dark face. His eyes were lined with kohl, and a crown of golden feathers covered his head from the middle of his forehead and up. He was bare chested, and a kilt lined with gold covered his lower half. He held a spear identical to hers on his right hand.

He raised the spear and brought it down like a staff, the _thunk_ echoing in the room before everything turned black.

* * *

Ally gasped and moved abruptly, sliding off the couch before a pair of hands grabbed her and moved her back. Her crazed eyes found Ardeth next to her, holding her almost on his lap. He was shocked at her sudden frenzied attitude, and tightened his hold on her arm and waist.

“The guy on the exhibit. I saw him.” She exclaimed, gripping his robes as she tried to convey the thrill of her discovery.  

“Who?” The warrior wondered, completely at a loss.

“I don’t know. A guy. With a… kilt and a feathery hat? Uh… a headdress? He looked tough. It was the guy from the drawing on the exhibition.” She nodded, absolutely certain her explanation was clear enough.

“Terrence should know.”

“What should I know?” Dr. Bey stood just next to the chariot with a cup of tea in hand. Her voice had drawn him from his position working on the desk. He arched his eyebrows at their compromising position, but didn’t comment on it.

“There’s a guy. With a skirt and feathers! I saw him!” She announced, standing up. She hurried to the other side of the room, Ardeth following behind a bit more slowly, the curator having to leave his tea behind on the desk to discover the source of the girl’s enthusiasm. “This guy!” She yelled for everyone to hear, pointing at the tablet.

Both men stood next to her, observing the stone.

“Anhur.” The curator murmured, thinking out loud. “Also known as Shu. He was the God of War. He was known as the Slayer of Enemies, for slaying Ra’s enemy Apep, the snake God of Chaos.”

“Snake?” She questioned, remembering all the snakes she’d seen in her visions, but mainly the last one.

“Yes. Apep lived in the underworld, and threatened to destroy _Ma’at,_ the order of the world. He was said to live… just below the horizon.” The older man added as an afterthought, turning to pace distractedly.

“What does that mean?” She glanced at the warrior beside her, but only received a shrug from him.

“It means he couldn’t come out while Ra reigned in the sky. During the day.”

“Ra is hidden now.” Ardeth supplied, looking toward the window above the exhibit.

“So Apep is coming out.” She concluded, finally realizing her role in the matter. “I need a spear.”

Two heads snapped toward her, stunned. “You cannot be thinking of…” Ardeth started stepping closer to her.

“I’ve seen it. The snake. I’ve seen myself with the spear. It’s why I’m here.” She shrugged, straightening her back to show confidence.

“You’ll die. We are talking about fighting a God!” He grabbed her arms, his voice rising in anger.

“Meh, not my first God.” She turned toward the curator. “Do you have weapons here?”

Ardeth was angry. Why, he wasn’t sure about. Dr. Bey and Ally had left the exhibit to find a spear she found suitable for the upcoming battle, while the warrior paced the floors furiously. Seti’s statue stood over his restless figure, its stillness in contrast with the dark robed man muttering under his breath.

Ally returned alone to the exhibit to find the man glaring at her, even more than when he’d first found her at the museum. She swiftly swung the black spear in her hands, trying to reassure the man, show him she knew what she was doing. While searching the weapons hidden at the basement with Dr. Bey, she’d immediately spotted the replica of the spear she’d seen in her visions. She didn’t need to look for more.

“You cannot do this.” Ardeth growled, eyeing the lance hatefully, as if it’d caused some personal offense to him.

“I can and I will.” She replied positively. “I will kill this snake, and then we’ll kill the mummy. I promised, didn’t I?” She stood close to him, holding the weapon on her side like a staff. “This will soon be all over, and you’ll have your vacation, Chieftain.” She smiled, dimples appearing on both sides of her lips.

His fury was placated with the smile, instead resignation making his shoulders sag. “I don’t take vacations. There are other things to guard in the desert.” He grumbled.

“No time to go home and rest with your family?” She tilted her head, frowning at who she was now coming to see as a workaholic.

“My men are my family. My parents died years ago, and I’ve been Chieftain ever since.” He shuffled and moved to take a seat, his hands covering his face. He was tired. He was afraid. He feared failure, and he feared her death.

He heard a clunk as Ally left her spear leaning against a chest, and heard her footsteps approach him. He felt her hands remove his from his face. Ardeth looked up as her hand came to his cheek, and stared when her thumb stroked the dark inked skin. His back straightened, anticipating her intentions, and stayed still as she dipped her head.

Her lips brushed his, carefully at first. The second time they connected, Ardeth’s hand rested on her waist, tightening and relaxing intermittently. In the middle of the apocalypse, she was giving him a little bit of peace.

Screaming cut their kiss short. Voices were coming from down the stairs, and Ally made sure to grab her new spear before running out to find the source of the noises.

Four figures entered the museum. One less than before.

“Henderson?” Ally’s voice trembled when the group reached them.

He was gone.

 


	10. Chapter 10

“Well, according to legend, the Black Book that the Americans found at Hamunaptra is supposed to bring people back from the dead.” Evy and Rick marched ahead of the group, the woman voicing her theories for everyone to hear. Behind them, Dr. Bey, Jonathan and Daniels climbed the stairs at the back of the Seti I exhibit. “Until now, it was a notion I was unwilling to believe.”

“Believe it, sister. That’s what brought our buddy back to life.” Rick responded joylessly.

Ardeth observed the girl that stood looking at the entrance of the museum, her arms wrapped around her middle. He noticed the curator glancing back to watch them before disappearing up the stairs, shooting him a questioning look. “Ally?”

She blinked, as if suddenly realizing she wasn’t alone. “Hm? Sorry, I… was thinking.”

“About him.” He nodded empathetically. He’d seen the man around Ally, he’d noticed the way the blond tried to stay close to her when in the same room.

“About them.” She corrected. “Burns and Henderson… they were the first to talk to me when I turned up at Hamunaptra, besides Rick. They gave me these clothes. They… are dead. I failed to protect them.”

“It is not your responsibility...” He started to retaliate, but was interrupted.

“Yes it is. _I_ was supposed to stop this creature from awakening. _I_ was supposed to kill it back in the City of the Dead. _I_ am supposed to protect the world from these kinds of things! It is on _my_ shoulders! It is _my_ duty.” Her voice softened to a whisper, a tremble on her lips. “Their deaths are on me.”

She started walking after the group, but a hand fell on her shoulder. She didn’t turn, but halted her steps, the lance _thumped_ on the tiled floors. “It is my duty too. My people share that burden. You need not bear it alone. Not anymore.” He squeezed her shoulder and set walking up the stairs beside her.

They caught up with the group soon, their strides long and fast. “I’m thinking that if the Black Book can bring dead people to life, then…” Evy continued, unaware of the couple at the back.

“Then maybe the Gold Book can kill him.” O’Connell finished for her.

“That’s the myth.” The brit sighed hopefully as they reached the top of the stairs. “Now, we just have to find out where the Gold Book is hidden.”

Ally and Ardeth shared a look as they remembered the brunette’s previous theory. The Black Book was at the Creature’s possession, so Evy’s theory was the next best thing. They halted on the last step as a chanting sound came from outside the museum, the grim repetitions all too clear. “Imhotep. Imhotep.”

The group gathered near the window looking over the path leading to the museum, a crowd with torches and rusty weapons approaching the building as a zombie-like mass.

“Last but not least, my favourite plague, boils and sores.” Jonathan announced, his voice dripping sarcasm.

“They have become his slaves.” The Medjai warrior declared. “So it has begun, the beginning of the end.”

“Not quite yet, it hasn’t. Come on.” Evy took charge as she led them all to a standing stone covered in carved hieroglyphics. “According to Bembridge scholars, the golden Book of Amun-Ra is located inside the statue of Anubis.” She recited, examining the stone with the curator.

“That’s where we found the Black Book.” Daniels spoke up, confused at the contradiction.

“Exactly.” The brit acknowledged.

“Looks like the old boys at Bembridge were mistaken.” Jonathan gloated, knowing his sister was bitter for being rejected time and time again by those same scholars.

“Yes. They mixed the books up. Mixed up where they were buried.” She explained, her voice gaining strength as her excitement grew. “So, if the Black Book is inside the statue of Anubis, then the Golden Book must be inside…”

A crash came from down the stairs. The doors of the museum broke open, the locks yelding under the force of dozens of men pounding at them ceaselessly. Ally tightened her hold on the spears and moved to the railing above the entrance hall. Ardeth caught her arm before she jumped over it and tugged her back to his side, shaking his head at her intentions.  

“Come on, Evy, faster.” Jonathan begged, the rest of the men watching the horde rushing inside the building.

“Patience is a virtue:” She sang, not stopping in her search for the location.

“Not right now, it isn’t.” Rich retorted as he tugged Ally back from the edge of the balcony, fearing the look of determination on her face.

“I think I’ll go and get the car started.” Jonathan ran away, opposite to the approaching throng of zombie look-alikes.

“I’ve got it!” Evy exclaimed at last, drawing everyone’s attention. “The golden Book of Amun-Ra is at Hamunaptra inside the statue of Horus. Take that, Bembridge scholars!” She fist pumped the air, a proud look on her face.

Ally grinned at her friend, her delight contagious. “Evy, my friend, you are a gift to this world. Now, everybody move!”

 They ran toward the back door of the museum, the front taken over by the mob. They jumped into the car, the front occupied by Rick, Evy and Jonathan, the middle by Ardeth and Dr. Bey, while Ally and Daniels sat at the back, her spear sticking out of the car.

Beni darted out the museum, calling for his new master as Jonathan started the car, Rick standing in place to threaten the rat. “You’re gonna get yours, Beni! You hear me? You’re gonna get yours!” He screamed until his voice went hoarse.

“Oh, like I’ve never heard that before!” The traitor responded from behind a statue as Imhotep’s slaves rushed behind the car.

They raced through the streets of Cairo, the mob never too far behind. The convertible’s wheels screeched at the sudden turns and narrow streets, and the people inside it held their breaths.

Suddenly, Jonathan hit the brakes, a group standing on the road in front of them. Another street stood to the side, and the Englishman made to turn before Ally screamed at him. “No! Don’t turn, Jonathan!”

They all turned to look at her, expecting an explanation, before they heard it.

A hissing sound.

Ally watched the side road, the mob in front of them unmoving. The ground trembled, a stall of spices on their right shaking lightly. Ardeth and Dr. Bey paled, and the brunette made her decision.

“Hit the gas, Rick! Up ahead! Don’t turn!” She ordered, and waited for the O’Connell to heed her orders before jumping out of the car and running down the side street.

“Ally, no!” Ardeth stood, but was pulled back down by the curator, just in time to avoid the bodies hitting the car.

“Where is she going?” Evy asked as she tried to bat the attackers away.

“I didn’t take her for a coward!” Daniels roared, furiously punching the men that tried to get a hold on the car.

“She’s not abandoning us!” The curator responded. “She’s gone to meet her fate! To fight an enemy older than the Creature himself!”

* * *

 

Already out of sight, Ally ran toward the hissing sound, the tremors increasing the closer she got to their source. Her heart pounded inside her chest, adrenaline coursing through her bloodstream.

She reached an open market and stopped. The hissing had ceased. She looked around, inspecting the darkened stalls forming a circle around her. Shadows danced under the moonlight, betraying her into finding more enemies in the darkness.

A stall shattered, from its remnants a head shot forward, expandable jaws wide open. Ally jumped out of its path, its fangs gleaming in the moonlight. The girl vaulted over a stand and climbed to a balcony overlooking the market. The height gave her the chance to judge her opponent, the snake’s tail coiling around itself as the head rose to match her height.

Just like the one in her vision. Its blue-green scales shone even in the dark, a cobra-like head with flattened neck-ribs ready to pounce. Its underbelly matched the amber eyes, and twisted in hypnotizing waves.

It lunged again, the height not an obstacle for the monstrous serpent. Ally leap as high up as possible, hovered in the air over the snake’s extended neck for an infinite second and plummeted with the spear pointed downward.

The snake’s back split in several intermittent cuts as the warrior glided down its tail. Scales broke loose and dark sticky blood spurted from the wounds, a loud seething sound coming from the protracted head.

When Ally wrenched the spear out of its back once she hit the ground, the tail uncoiled in a snap, and hit the girl on the side with colossal strength. Her body was hurled across the market, and hit the wall with a crack. She fell to the ground, her lance abandoned a couple feet from her form. Shattered flakes and fragments of the wall rained upon the God of War’s champion, blood mixing with the sand near her head.

Apep shook as the incisions kept oozing dark gore, turning slowly to watch its adversary. She lay unmoving, but for an undetectable twitch on her right hand. The God of Chaos hissed in rejoice, slithering closer to the inert silhouette, tongue flicking out to smell the girl’s blood. The reptile rose above the body, blocking out the moonlight, and hovered, leaning closer by the second.

The champion’s body came to life in a split second, grabbing the spear and swiping at the head, severing the snake’s tongue as it fluttered outside its mouth. She lunged away from the monster once more, her movements slower and quivery, yet unstoppable. She staggered backward as the God hissed louder, more vital fluid escaping its shell. The snake twisted in pain, convulsing and lashing out aimlessly.

 _This is it. It’s now or never._ She thought, gathering any strength left in her battered body as she held the spear with both hands and ran toward the frenzied beast, propelling herself on a ledge and pushing upward, aiming for the head.

The demon stilled for a moment, detecting the upcoming attack, and charged.


	11. Chapter 11

Three men climbed out of the manhole, the Englishman breathing in deeply while he grasped the hand his American friend offered. They exchanged the light from Jonathan's lighter for the moon's own, their eyes accustomed to the darker tunnels by then.

Jonathan's panting was drowned by a loud resounding thud, making the men turn to confront a new attacker, only to find the streets empty.

"What was that noise?" The brit voiced, sending nervous glances toward his companions.

He received no answer but the taller men rushing down the street, and had no choice but to follow.

Everything was eerily silent by the time the reached an open marketplace, most stalls destroyed and scattered.

There, in the middle of the moonlit square, a twenty-feet long snake lay with a spear pierced through the space between its unseeing eyes, a familiar girl standing on its massive head. She leaned on the lance; blood and debris clung to her body.

"Sweet dear lord." Jonathan gasped.

Three faces stared agape, trying to make sense of the scene.

"You did it." Ardeth spoke up finally, moving closer to the girl as she let go of the spear and wobbled off the monster's head. He caught her as she stumbled at hitting solid ground, receiving a hiss when his hand fell on her shoulder. He tried to inspect her injuries, but she moved closer to the other standing men.

"No." She wheezed out, her voice hoarse, from emotion or exhaustion she didn't know.

"She's not dead." O'Connell rushed to correct her. "He took her to Hamunaptra. She's not dead. Not yet."

"And Dr. Bey?"

Rick shook his head remorsefully before looking her over again. "What is  _that_?"

"That is a God." Ardeth replied from behind her. "Or, at least, its form in this world. Apep, God of Chaos."

The Englishman approached the dead snake and pulled at the spear to extract it from the head, grunting with the effort. The weapon stayed buried.

"I was tasked with killing it. Knew it would come out with the eclipse." She explained vaguely before she felt the Medjai's hands on her head again. Instead of batting him away, she turned her head to look at him. "I'm sorry about Dr. Bey."

He nodded before forcing her to turn her head again. "Now, be still. You're bleeding."

"It's no big deal, I'll be fine, it just hurled me against the wall." She pointed at the cracked facade of the building. "But… do me a favor?" She spun on her heel and held her left hand in front of him with a wince. "Hold tightly. I think my shoulder was pulled out of its socket."

He grabbed her hand and forearm tightly, confused as to her intention. Before he realized what she was doing, she pulled her body back, a crack making them all flinch. Her face scrunched in pain, her jaw clenched shut, then relaxed with a hiss. Jonathan yelped as the lance got loose and he stumbled onto his back. "Much better." She announced and lowered her hand. "Now, we need to go to Hamunaptra, get the Book of Amun-Ra and rescue Evy. How?"

Rick blinked, shaking off the astonishment at her actions and started walking once more. "I know someone who can take us there. We need to find the car first."

* * *

Once sat in the middle row of the car, next to Ardeth, Ally closed her eyes and rubbed her face, the events of the night catching up with her. She was tired. She was sore. She wanted a bath, but her friend had been kidnapped by a three-thousand-year-old mummy. She mentally snorted, realizing the absurdity of it all. She'd just fought a giant snake.

"Rest." A deep voice breathed next to her. "I'll wake you up when we get there. You need to rest."

She opened her eyes to stare at the dark robed man observing her with a something akin to softness in his eyes. She dropped her hands, one resting on top of his, and shuffled closer. "I'll kick your butt if you don't wake me." She warned before leaning against his shoulder and closing her eyes once more.

* * *

"Ally." Her shoulder was softly shaken, her head moving as something under it jolted every few moments. "We're there. Wake up."

"I'm awake." She mumbled before managing to open her eyes and shut then again when the glaring sun hurt the sensitive organs. "Ow, fuck, can I get the eclipse back?" She groaned as she buried her head in the dark material holding her up to hide it from the light.

"Why do you swear so much?" He wondered, his voice low and simply curious.

"It releases tension. It's therapeutic." She responded clearly as she tried to straighten in her seat and noticed the car had stopped moving.

"Had a good nap?" O'Connell's voice teased from the front.

Ally squinted against the sun, her hand on her forehead like a visor. They were at an airfield in the middle of the dunes, a small war plane resting in the middle.

The group moved up the dunes to the side toward a man sitting in a chair, a small table with a tea set on his side and a thin Egyptian man holding a parasol over him. A gramophone tuned Latin American music, and if it hadn't been for the uniform, Ally would have taken the old man for a noble.

"Morning, Winston!" O'Connell greeted as the group approached. "Uh, a word?"

"What's your little problem got to do with His Majesty's Royal Air Corp?" The old soldier asked, sipping from his cup, his thick mustache wet when it came back up.

"Not a damn thing." Rick responded honestly.

Winston left the cup down on the table, a sudden interest taking over his expression. "Is it dangerous?" His eyes twinkled with excitement.

"You probably won't live through it." The American admitted.

Ally looked at Ardeth, wondering what Rick was thinking, how they would convince the man to help them that way. He seemed to think the same, but stayed quiet.

Instead of being put out, Winston leaned forward. "By Jove, do you really think so?"

"Well, everybody else we've bumped into has died. Why not you?" Jonathan piped in, not looking the least bit concerned by it.

Ardeth's hand searched Ally's, squeezing to reassure her again those deaths were not her fault. She squeezed back and held on to his hand.

"What's the… What's the challenge then?" The pilot rose from his seat, getting more and more animated by the second.

"Rescue the damsel in distress, kill the bad guy and save the world." O'Connell nodded, sure the deal was closed by then.

The soldier laughed, elated, and saluted them. "Winston Havlock, at your service, sir."

Ardeth looked at Ally once more, bewildered, as if asking whether all westerners were the same. His movement drew Winston's attention, who finally caught sight of the girl beside the desert man.

"Dear Lord, what happened to you, child?" He stepped toward her, noticing the blood, dust, and sand all over her.

Not knowing how to deal with the strange man, she shrugged. "I fought a giant snake." She scratched the dry blood on her neck and grimaced. "Didn't get a chance to wash up."

"Here, boy!" Winston waved his servant closer and pointed toward the girl. "Get her a washbasin and some clean clothes, boy. I reckon you are okay with man's clothes? Hmm, you can clean yourself while we get the plane ready."

* * *

Ten minutes later, Ally joined her friends once more, her skin clear and her clothes better fitted to her shape. Her long hair had been plaited into a braid coming down to the small of her back, free of blood and dust. She observed the plane, and immediately realized the problem.

"Two seats. How are we all gonna fit there?" She questioned the pilot, who handed her a thick long leather strap, an aviator hat, and goggles. "Oh, damn."

* * *

Jonathan and Ally were strapped to one of the wings of the plane, Ardeth on the other side. Rick sat on the back seat of the plane, Winston piloting it. Despite the precarious position, Ally thought the views and destination were well worth it.

"See that? I've never seen one so big!" She heard Winston exclaim and turned her head as much as possible to see a giant sand-devil.

She could see Hamunaptra not far from them, against the cliffs. They'd get there soon.

She cursed out loud when a wall of sand formed between the City of the Dead and them. It looked like a sandstorm, but it'd appeared too suddenly to be natural.

"Hey, Winston!" Rick cried, matching Ally's thoughts. "Pedal faster!"

"Hang on!" The pilot shouted back, and Ally held onto the wing tighter, burying her head in her arms to protect her face from the sand.

The plane dipped as they came over the edge of a cliff, the sandstorm breaking over the mountain as they flew closer to the ground.

She raised her head and looked back as much as possible when Rick started shooting the machine gun attached to the plane.

"What the fuck are you hoping to achieve?!" She screamed at the American. "It's sand, O'Connell!"

A groan came from deep inside the sandstorm before the plane was swallowed by it.

"Here I come, laddies!" Winston laughed as sand surrounded them, drawing an exasperated huff from the girl who buried her head against the wing again.

The sands retreated soon, but the engines had been damaged enough. Smoke wafted after them, fire taking over the machine and making Winston loose control.

They were going down.

They collided against the dunes, the hit breaking Ally's leather strap and making her launch forward, her back hitting the sand with a grunt. She laid there for a bit, trying to regain her breath and relax her bruised body. She wondered how many colors her body would display when it was all over and done with.

A shadow fell over her body and made her open her eyes. A tattooed hand reached down to her, and she grabbed it without hesitation, standing up to see Ardeth holding the machine gun in his hands.

"Everybody alright?" She asked as they walked back toward O'Connell, who'd cut Jonathan down from the wing.

"Winston! Hey, Winston!" Rick walked closer to the pilot's pit, then shared a look with Jonathan.

Winston was gone too.

The plane started to sink into the sands and both men had to step back from it, letting the desert take the pilot and his plane for itself.

"Quicksand! Get back! It's quicksand!" Ardeth warned them, keeping Ally behind him lest she try to cut Winston loose.

Rick saluted the drowning plane, grabbed his pack and marched off.


	12. Chapter 12

The walk to Hamunaptra was not long, they almost hoped to catch up with Imhotep and Evy before the ritual started and put an end to the whole deal. Infuriatingly, the Creature had blocked the entrance to the lower levels of the City, the archway had collapsed after they’d passed, leaving the rescuers to clear the way by hand.

Despite her insistence that she could move rocks faster than them, Ardeth had made her sit down and wait. She would have fought him, hadn’t it been for Rick supporting the desert man too.

She didn’t want to argue with both of them. She would take the chance to rest some.

Jonathan stood back on his own volition, shouting orders to the other men as an overseer would with his laborers. “I’d take those bigger stones first. Take them from the top, otherwise, the whole thing will cave in on us. Come on. Put your backs into it.” Rick and Ardeth stopped moving the rocks and straightened, towering menacingly over Jonathan. The Englishman cowered under their glares, his voice lowering considerably. “Yes, well, you’ve got the idea. Chop-chop.”

Ally snorted and laid her head on her knees, wrapping her arms around it and cocooning herself. The tomb was quite chilly. She heard Jonathan shuffle behind the working men, but her eyes were set on the Medjai Chieftain. He’d left his headpiece behind, letting his hair loose. Ally found it completely fascinating. Her fingers itched to run through those tresses. She’d found him attractive even in his grumpiest introduction, but Ardeth worried for her, Ardeth comforting her… Well, she would be lying if she said she didn’t want to jump his bones and keep him locked in a room with her for a week straight.

Damn, she was daydreaming.

“Gents, you should come and have a look at this.” Jonathan called while Ally imagined flying dark robes. She shook herself mentally and blinked at Jonathan, something resting in the palm of his hand.

Then he freaked out. He started screaming, terrified, holding his arm as far away from himself as possible. Ally scrambled to her feet and rushed toward him, only to see a bump crawling under his skin, moving from his forearm toward his torso.

“What?” O’Connell hurried to his side.

“It’s my arm! My arm!”

The American ripped Jonathan’s shirt, uncovering the mass that had reached his shoulder.

“Do something!” The brit begged, moving hysterically.

“Hold him!” Ally ordered the men, who each took one of Jonathan’s arms.

“Do something! Do something!” She plucked the knife she kept inside her boot and drove it under his skin, right beneath the moving bump. “Not that! Not that!”

Ardeth and Rick kept him still and soon a scarab sailed through the air to the ground several feet away from them. It tried to come at them again, but a well-aimed shot from O’Connell destroyed the bug.

Ally wrapped a piece of his own destroyed shirt around Jonathan’s new battle-wound -he insisted it would make him that much more desirable to the women he dated- while their friends cleared the rest of the way. They moved through the tunnels, torch in hand, until they came across a familiar mirror bathed in light. Rick shot at it, moving it enough to reflect the light across the room, hitting another mirror in a chain-reaction that soon lit the whole room.

A room covered in gold.

“Can you see…?” Jonathan mumbled, awestruck as they trudged through the room.

“Yeah.” O’Connell responded distractedly.

“Can you believe…?”

“Yeah.”

“Can we just…?”

“No.”

A grunt came from somewhere behind them, making them all turn, guns ready. A hand broke through the floor, an arm following it until a dusty mummy rose. It wasn’t alone. Several others followed the first.

“Who the hell are these guys?” Rick wondered, holding his shotgun firmly.

“Priests. Imhotep’s priests.” Ardeth answered, shocked.

“Alright, then.” The American man shrugged and fired at the undead.

Ally brought her own gun from the holster Winston had provided for her, her aim precise as ever as skulls burst from her bullets.

They ran out of charged ammo soon and started retreating, half a dozen mummies still coming at them. Ally looked around the room, looking for more fitting weapons, and spotted a pair of long daggers dangling from a golden statue not far from them. She ran on the opposite direction as the rest of her group, the mummies dividing into two smaller groups to come at her. She sliced through the creatures in a comfortable dance, cleaving heads and arms as she covered her advancing companions. They were marching deeper into the tunnels, the search for Evy merely slowed down by the attackers.

Once she was close enough in the narrow tunnel they were trying to cross, Ardeth pulled her behind him so he could make use of his machine gun, the corpses shattering with each round.

“There he is!” She heard Jonathan exclaim from the other side of the tunnel. “Hello, Horus, old boy!” He greeted the statue enthusiastically as he lit a nearby torch with his own.

Rick and Ardeth backed out of the passage. The first handed his shotgun to the desert man and brought a stick of dynamite out, lighting the match on Ardeth’s beard to then light the fuse. “Time to close the door.” He warned, throwing the stick inside the passage.

The Medjai pushed Ally behind the statue of Horus and crouched over her, covering her with his own body. Annoyed, the girl grabbed a hold of his robe and pushed him down beside her, practically pressing him down with her own body so he would stay safe.

The blast shook the ground, but they heard no more mummies grunting. Rick kneeled next to Jonathan as they tried to pry the compartment under the statue of Horus open, while Ardeth and Ally recharged their weapons, readying themselves for more battle.

Squeaks and shrieks broke their momentary peace, shadows appearing in another passage.

“Damn. These guys just don’t quit, do they?” Rick growled, still pulling at the stone cover.

Ally picked up her new daggers and charged at the priests, the width of the passage limiting her movements, but also ensuring she faced them one at a time. When she moved out of the way, a shot from Ardeth would bring the next mummy down. Her warrior stood guarding the tunnel, protecting their friends from any opponent. The brunette pushed the horde away, further into the tunnel, just as the Medjai ran out of bullets. She was out of sight when she heard him speak to the others. “Save the girl. Kill the Creature.”

Then he yelled and his footsteps approached, more mummies emerging from side passages for him to fight. Ally tried to keep an eye on him, but her own opponents became more numerous, as the tunnel widened and other paths spilled into their own.

The place was crawling.

“What are you waiting for? Get out! Get out!” She heard Ardeth scream at O’Connell before an explosion shook the walls.

“Ardeth!” Ally cried, not seeing him anymore. She kicked the mummy in front of her with all her might and it was sent hurtling against every creature behind, clearing the path to another room. “Ardeth!”

A grunt deeper than those from the undead replied before words did. “I’m fine!” He appeared at the corner of the passage then, more corpses trailing after him. The girl elbowed another one close to her before moving to assist the warrior and then jerking him out of the passage into the far bigger room.

Fewer mummies remained to pursue them. Ally kept Ardeth behind her and slashed at those nearing them, all the while backing further into the room. It seemed to be empty but for a few pillars, cobwebs and dust indicating none others had been there in a long time. She felt the tug near her waist when the Medjai took her pistol, and the shot so close to her ear made her flinch.

A metallic structure was cut loose from the wall above the entrance, and fell down with a loud _thunk_ , smashing the mummy beneath and preventing any others from following into the room. A piece of rope dangled above the blocked passageway, the end seared by the well-aimed bullet.

“Good thinking.” Ally panted, recovering from the battle as no more rivals appeared.

She turned to look at the man next to her and let the daggers fall to the ground. He was breathing heavily too, his hair mussed and robes ruffled. He stared back, shoulders rising and falling with each breath, the moved to place the pistol back in its holster. His hand rested on her waist, his body closing the distance between them.

She smiled, a hand gripping the front of his robes, and closed the gap.

 _It is as soft as I imagined_. She thought as her free hand ran through his hair, his lips covering her. Adrenaline left from the fight had them both yearning for more, tugging, pulling, brushing. The kiss deepened, her tongue sought his, and his grunt vibrated through her. Someone pushed, they weren’t sure who, and Ally found herself, leaning on a column, his body crushing hers against the stone. His hands were everywhere, stealing sighs and moans from her.

The trembling tore them away from each other. Sand sifted down on them as the quaking got more intense, and where his hands hand been caressing before, they were then yanking her out of the room, down a side hole and across halls. Gates had started to sink into the ground, cutting the way back deeper into the tomb.

They ran. They hoped their friends had managed to get out before them.

When they arrived at the outside ruins, they didn’t get a chance to stop. The columns and stones that had stood vigil through millennia crumbled to the ground, narrowly missing the pair dashing away from them. They reached the perimeter of the ruins, at the top of a dune overlooking the desert.

Ardeth stood guard behind her, his hands on her arms, as they watched the City of the Dead sink into the ground.

“Ardeth, if they…”

“They will make it out. They have proved themselves resourceful. They must make it out.” He assured her, tightening his hold on her trembling form.

The last of the walls broke, a volcano of sand erupting where Hamunaptra had been.

“No…” She shook her head, unwilling to believe the fate of her friends. “No…”

“Ally.” The Medjai clenched his arms, then let go of one arm and pointed somewhere in the distance. His other arm moved around her waist, his lips hovering near her ear. “Look, there.”

Three figures jogged through the desert, casting fearful glances behind every now and then.

Air and tension left her body all at once, then she was off, sprinting toward the three silhouettes. She swore she heard a chuckle behind her, but was all too happy to pay any attention. Her friends were still ignorant of her presence, having moved toward a herd of camels by the time she was close enough to hear them.

“Evy!” The girl cried, overjoyed by the image of her unscathed friend. She latched onto the other woman, who hugged her back with all her strength, laughing in relief.

“Oh, I thought you were gone!” The brit shrieked, tripping over her own feet once they broke apart.

“I thought _you_ were gone!” The other retorted, her lips still stretched in a smile. She glanced behind the librarian to the amused looking American, and squeezed him too. “You did it, Rick! It’s over!”

“It’s over, Alls.” He repeated, returning the embrace and patting her back. “We’ve done it.”

Distracted by the image as he was, Jonathan squealed when a hand fell on his shoulder. “Thank you! Thank you very much.” The brit complained at the warrior atop a camel, a hand held over his rapidly beating heart.

“You have earned the respect and gratitude of me and my people.” Ardeth smiled down on them, nodding at the Englishman.

“Yes, well, it was nothing.” Jonathan shrugged it off, still clutching at his chest.

“May Allah smile upon you always.” He wished, then saluted them his way.

Jonathan tried to unsuccessfully imitate the hand gesture. “And… yourself.”

Ally chuckled and approached the camel, taking the hand stretched out for her.

“Will you come with me?” He whispered, running his thumb over her knuckles.

“No. But I hope you will visit in Cairo, if I am still around.” She shrugged, squeezing his hand. “I don’t know how much time I have left here, and I… need to check some things just in case I stay for a longer period.”

“I will come to see you. As long as you want me to.” He nodded, kissed the back of her hand and set off once more.

Another chuckle from Jonathan, who moved to stand beside the girl. “Yes, anytime.”

“Stay out of trouble!” Rick called after their friend and smirked knowingly at Ally, who just rolled her eyes.

“He’s just… leaving us here.” Jonathan mumbled, staring after the camel grumpily.

“We’ll see him again. Don’t worry.” Ally smiled and looked back toward the city.

The Englishman kicked the sand dejectedly. “Well, I guess we go home empty-handed… again.”

“I wouldn’t say that.” Came from Rick, who gazed down on Evy, a soft look on his face.

“Oh, please.” Jonathan rolled his eyes and looked away, and Ally stared after the figure riding away.

Something good had come out of this whole ordeal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even though this is as far as the movie goes, the fic is not over yet! I'll post two more chapters tomorrow.  
> Lee out


	13. Chapter 13

Jonathan had wept when they'd discovered the sacs full of treasure on the camels. It was unanimously decided to divide the treasure into equal parts, and do whatever they wanted with their share. Ally argued she probably wouldn't stay in that world long, if there was nothing else for her to fight, and Evy countered that she still deserved to live comfortably  _while_  she was there. They'd settled for opening a bank account to her name, with Rick's help, and letting him and Evy manage it as they wished when Ally left. But until such moment, it was to be hers and hers alone.

Ally rented an apartment at Fort Brydon, near Evy and Rick's new bigger apartment, which only took a tiny fraction of her share of the treasure. Rick had helped her open said bank account, and returned from the banker's office dangling several papers in his hand. At the top of said papers,  _Richard O'Connell_ and  _Ally O'Connell_  stood out in neat black handwriting. Not knowing how to justify his involvement in her financial matters, he'd declared her his sister, long lost through due to an obscure adoption covered by the orphanage he'd grown up in. Hence her missing papers. Evy had jumped in delight at the explanation, exclaiming just how  _fitting_  the story could be for covering her real origin.

The new couple was already engaged, bickering but happy together. Evy had asked the brunette to be her bridesmaid, and squealed and laughed when she announced she was getting married.

Rick, on the other hand, looked flustered any and every time Ally alluded to the fast pace of their relationship. She knew they were hopelessly in love with each other, and never questioned they'd have a happy marriage. She just noted they'd known each other for less than a month.

"I'm happy for you two, Rick, truly." She reassured, patting his arm as the two of them walked into a bookshop. "I know you'll take good care of each other. And hopefully get a leash for Jonathan." The older brit had gone off gambling and drinking the moment they'd reached Cairo. They hadn't seen him in a week.

"I just hope she won't read from another cursed book." He scoffed and shook his head fondly as he followed the girl through the stacks. "I would say I'm happy for you, too, but I don't really know what is going on." He leaned on a bookshelf and raised his eyebrows, expectant.

"What is going on with what?" She played dumb, running her fingers through the spines of several English tomes.

O'Connell's eyebrows arched higher, a  _Don't give me that crap_  kind of look on his face. "Should I go interrogate Ardeth then? March into the desert to ask about his intentions in front of his men? It would match the image of responsible older brother Evy seems so intent on making me display with you."

"Shut up." Ally grumbled, moving farther down the row.

"Should I challenge him to a duel?  _How dare you touch my lovely little sister without my permission-_ "

"Permission! Ha!" She laughed out loud, turning her back on him.

"Ah-ah, so he  _did_ touch you!" The man pointed with mirth, his lips stretching into a wicked smile. "My, who would have thought the guy had it in him, all serious and business-like as he was. Could've fooled me. So what part of his body should I cut for making advances on my dear baby sister?" He chuckled, crossing his arms over his chest.

"First of all,  _I_ made the advances, per se. Second of all, you dump the blame on Evy, but you do seem to enjoy playing the big bro role, huh?" She imitated his stance, staring him down.

" _You_  made the advances? Oh, Jonathan is gonna have a field day when I tell him." He laughed out loud, leaning against the bookshelf again while the girl glared.

"You are  _not_  going to tell Jonathan. He'd start shouting innuendos anytime Ardeth came around here. Jonathan does not need a bullet to the ass." She kicked Rick's shin, making him flinch.

The American rubbed his sore leg and frowned at her. "He's going to come to see you? Wait, you think he'd shoot Jonathan?"

" _I'd_  shoot Jonathan if he did that." She scoffed and plucked a book out of the shelf on her left. "Hmmm, this one..." She grabbed a couple more from the next shelf. "I can't believe these are  _new_ …" Her arms were soon full of books, which she passed onto Rick when she moved to the next row.

"So, you two are… together?" Rick continued, adjusting his arms to hold the books better. He suspected she'd hang him if he damaged them. He'd noticed the reverent way both Evy and Ally treated the former's books.

"I can't get into a serious relationship, Rick. I don't know how long I'll be here." She continued placing books in his arms, licking her lips in anticipation.

"Then, what are you two?"

"Uhm… friends with benefits? When the benefits start, that is." She arched an eyebrow and stopped. "Does that exist here?"

"Uh, yeah, but it's not… favorably seen."

"Meh, I don't care much for people's opinions. But it's better if we keep it… private, I guess, for him. I trust you  _won't_  tell Jonathan? Or anyone else, for that matter?"

"Yeah, you don't need to worry about it. Evy will know, though."

"I'm alright with that."

"I assume all  _these_  are to keep you company while he's away?" The American looked at the enormous pile of tomes in his arms, more in Ally's.

She howled with laughter, shaking her head. "I'll be done with them in a couple weeks."

* * *

A week later, and a month after they'd returned from Hamunaptra for the last time, there was a knock on Ally's door. She'd been lunging in her rooms, her sleeping dress still on, drinking tea and reading  _Then Days That Shook The World_  in her armchair, legs over the armrest. She frowned, not expecting Evy to come get her for lunch yet, and left the book on the tea table.

She tugged the hem of her shortened dress down, not too worried about her appearance. She hadn't been able to find what she considered  _normal pajamas or sleepwear_  and resorted to cutting several nightgowns until they reached the top of her thighs. She didn't like all that fabric around her legs in bed, or the skirt bunching around her hips after much turning.

She opened the door partway, standing behind the wood in case it wasn't Evy, but flung it open when she recognized the dark robed man waiting outside.

"Ardeth!" She hugged him tightly, her arms around his neck before he had a chance to say anything.

He froze for a few seconds, then returned the embrace, his shoulders relaxing under her arms. "Ally."

His voice sent shivers down her spine and made her remember her manners. "Come in, come in. Don't stand out there." She moved out of the way and waited for him to walk into the room. "I was starting to think you weren't coming back." She smiled and took in his appearance.

His body was covered in dust and sand, his skin smudged with dirt and sweat where she could see it. Every step he took made sand rain down on her floor and proved he was more tired than he wanted her to see.

"I just arrived. I couldn't come sooner." He answered, trying to keep his eyes either around the room or on her face.

"I can see that. You look exhausted. Here, take that off and sit." She tugged at his outer robe, and helped him shed it. She hung it near the entrance and gestured toward the couch. "I've got tea, if you want some. I just made a fresh batch."

He nodded and sat down with a barely concealed groan. She moved toward the kitchenette, pouring more tea into her cup and retrieving another clean cup before moving to back to the living area. He noticed his eyes fall down to the tea table as soon as she faced him again, and held back a smirk.

"I gather you've been busy after the deal with Imhotep." She commented, sitting down in her armchair and cradling the warm cup in her hands.

He nodded, his gaze still on the table. "We'd been guarding the City for so long, we had to reorganize everything once it was gone. And then, I needed to wait for the elders to tell me what they'd discovered about you."

"Me?" She tilted her head, confused. A conversation drifted into her mind, one they'd had a month earlier with Dr. Bey. They had wanted to ask the elders of their tribe about her involvement with Anhur, but she'd thought that had been dealt with after she'd fought Apep.

"I described the tattoo to them, recounted your battle with the Snake God, and your abilities. It took them awhile to gather anything from their research." He sipped his tea, taking a moment to reorganize his thoughts. "Never, in the history of our people, have we encountered an envoy of the Old Gods." He finally looked at her.

She nodded and drank more tea, already expecting something like that. She had hoped to get more information on Anhur himself, but she'd just have to research on her own. Once done with her tea, she put the cup back down and saw Ardeth do the same.

"Come." She stood and held her hand out for him. He hesitated, but ended up grasping it tightly, still not looking anywhere under her neck. How different from their last encounter. She pulled him behind her across the apartment, feeling how he almost halted when they entered the bedroom. "Relax, I'm not planning on assaulting you." She smirked at him from over her shoulder and yanked him with her into the bathroom. "You look tired and dirty, I thought you'd like to take a bath."

He blinked, surprised, before his expression softened. "Yes, thank you. I'd like that."

"Hmm, I have more soaps and towels in my cupboard. Go on." She smiled, dropped his hand and moved out of the room to search for her last batch of soaps. She heard the water start, and some muffled ruffling, but didn't give it much thought until she was back in the bathroom, her arms full.

A glorious tanned backside greeted her entrance.

 _Even better than I imagined_.

She watched him climb into the bath, his body slowly hiding from view, and shifted her arms as she approached the last few steps to him. He seemed startled by her presence at first, not having heard her come back, and tensed when she dropped to her knees near the tub. She didn't pay him much attention at first, only rummaged through a nearby box until she made an approving sound and turned back toward the tub with a washcloth in hand and one of her new bars of soap in the other.

"Lean forward." She ordered, ignoring the way he watched her like a hawk.

"What?" He blinked, glancing from the clear water to the girl intermittently.

"Lean forward. I'll wash you back." She repeated, drenching both the cloth and soap in the water then rubbing them together.

"Ally, you needn't…"

"Relax, Ardeth, will ya? Let me do this." She smiled, then giggled at the sudden thought that had popped into her mind. "Do you  _know_  how to relax? You're always so wound up."

He scowled and looked away. "I know how to relax. I can relax, when I want to."

"Then do it. And lean forward, you stubborn man." She dropped the bar of soap, enough lather on the cloth, and pushed his shoulder until he obeyed.

He grumbled something under his breath but finally complied. She worked his back, trying to massage the knots between his shoulders with the hand not holding the washcloth. His muscles relaxed gradually, groans and sighs indicating he was enjoying the treatment. She easily pushed him to lean back on the bath and watched his closed eyes as she slid the cloth across his chest and neck.

His hand came up to stop hers when it touched his abdomen. "I'll do the rest." He mumbled, moving his thumb across her knuckles softly. His eyes were half-lidded, his face still calm.

She nodded and surrendered the cloth, smiling lightly. "I'll wash your hair while you do that." She offered, grabbing another bar of soap.

He shifted forward to let her dump the pitcher of water on his head, then leaned back again when she started rubbing the soap in. He washed the rest of himself, contented sighs leaving his lips more often when her fingers massaged his scalp just so. He ended up forgetting the washcloth, his whole body rendered slack by her caring hands.

"Better?" She asked, her voice low as she ran her fingers through the hair at the back of his neck. He mumbled something in response, half-asleep already. She grinned, but grabbed the pitcher once more and tapped his shoulder. "Lean forward again. I'll rinse your hair, then you can go to sleep." She kept her voice just above a whisper, and caressed his shoulder as he moved.

Once his hair was free of soap, she stood, plucked the biggest towel from the pile and held it out for him.

Apparently no longer concerned about his nakedness, the Medjai pushed himself to his feet and took the towel from her. She turned around and made to leave as he wrapped the towel around his hips, but soon found herself being tugged back and wrapped in strong wet arms. His lips captured hers with a passion she thought him incapable of in his relaxed and sleepy state. She was wrong.

His hands moved to the back of her neck and the small of her back, her own gripping his dripping wet hair and caressing his chest, water drenching her nightgown. Her body temperature rose, goosebumps breaking all over her arms and legs. The man knew how to kiss.

"Do you receive all your guests like this?" He breathed when they broke the kiss to get some air.

"Evy and Rick are the only other people who come here." She smiled and brushed her lips against his softly again. "I wasn't sure if you liked my nightgown or found it abhorrent." She chuckled and locked her arms behind his neck.

"It's torture, absolute…" His hands dipped under the hem and moved over her hips. "agony to see you open the door in this after a month…"

"I better stop your torment then." She smirked, stepped back and flung the dress over her head.

* * *

He'd fallen asleep right after the first round. He was laying on his back, one arm over his head, the other reaching for her in his sleep. His hair was still damp, spread over the pillow on her bed. She pulled the cotton sheets over his body and left the bed, taking her clothes to the living room so she could dress without disturbing him. It was lunchtime, she realized. He would be hungry when he woke.

She scribbled down a quick note, left it on the bedside table and went to meet Rick and Evy.


	14. Chapter 14

"Well, aren't you cheery this morning?" Rick commented when Ally met him and his fiancée for lunch at the restaurant. "What book did you finish today?" He teased, earning a light kick under the table.

"None. Ardeth is here." She responded with a smile as she settled. She'd assumed one of them had seen Ardeth and told him where to find her. A smirk on Evy's lips revealed her to be the culprit.

"Here? Where?" O'Connell looked around the restaurant for the tell-tale dark robes and frowned when he couldn't find him.

"Not  _here_. I mean, here in Cairo. He's sleeping in my room. He was exhausted when he arrived. Apparently, not having to deal with Imhotep anymore caused more than a few changes within the Medjai tribes. Thanks for pointing him my way, Evy." She smirked back at the librarian, Rick glancing between them.

"You knew he was here?" The man blinked when Evy's smile grew.

"I came across him when I returned from the post office. He was so  _nervous_!" She giggled and had to cover her mouth when the waiter came for their order, only laughing again once he was out of earshot. "I'd say he likes you very, very much, Ally."

"You don't say." Rick deadpanned, then arched an eyebrow at the girl he'd taken as his sister. "Bet you gave him a warm welcome, huh, Alls?" He wiggled his eyebrows until a napkin hit him in the face.

"Very funny, Rick." She grabbed some bread and nibbled on it.

"Must you be so insensible, O'Connell?" Evy chastised, drawing the attention away from the Medjai.

" _You_  will soon be marrying this  _insensible_  man and be known as Mrs. O'Connell, darling." He shot back smugly.

"Ignore him, Evy. You said you went to the post office? To send your new application to Bembridge?" She'd heard the other woman drive herself sick with stress while writing her new application. Evy had given it to the Ally to get a second opinion, at it'd been ready for several days by then.

"Yes! Now that I  _do_  have more experience in the field, they might finally accept it!"

"I sure hope so, Evy. You deserve it. You're absolutely brilliant, my friend."

The brit blushed at the compliment, grinning adorably when her boyfriend took her hand and backed Ally's words.

Once lunch was done, a warm order ready to take upstairs for Ardeth, Ally left the couple smirking slyly after her.

Ardeth stayed for a couple more days, even joining the engaged couple evenings before heading back to their rooms. Rick teased him a couple times, but overall behaved much better than Ally had hoped.

Ardeth would return for a few days a month when his duties to his people were taken care of. Ally always welcomed him in her apartment, secretly proud of herself for getting the workaholic Chieftain to take days off.  _He does go on vacation_ , she smirked to herself one night, when he was already asleep.

* * *

After his third visit, just after he left, she started to feel uneasy. She worried she'd gotten whatever bug Evy had caught, and returned to her apartment to continue preparing Evy and Rick's wedding gift. They would be getting married in less than a fortnight. Everyone was ecstatic, even Jonathan, who had returned from yet another gambling trip down in Memphis smelling like he'd bathed in whisky.

Ally sat down on her couch and flipped through the book collection she'd gathered from small publishers in England via post. Little known stories and tomes, only a few editions published, all of which would become extremely popular in later years. She'd already written the letter she'd give them to the couple with, explaining the nature of the gift, along with a list of encouraged investments in fields she knew would be important, so they would never be out of comforts.

If there was something unique she could give them, it was knowledge. Knowledge of things to come. Little things, but useful nevertheless.

She grabbed her pad and wrote down a couple more things she might include in the gift, if she could find them in time.

The troubling feeling grew even more. She wasn't feeling sick, per se, but she couldn't shake it off.

She rose to make some tea before starting another book. She set the kettle on the burner and lit the match, only for the fire to flicker and die before it reached the burner. She tried again with the same result.

She heard papers falling in the living space and turned. Had she left a window open?

A light near the couches made her heart drop. It was barely more than a shimmer at first, a couple feet above the ground. But it grew, steadily, unceasingly. It expanded into a circle, a ring of light filled with a dark aqueous substance that pulled her in with ever-growing force. No. She ran to the table and grabbed the pen and pad, writing as quickly as possible.

_Dear Evy, Rick, Jonathan and Ardeth,_

_I hope you won't be too angry I didn't say goodbye. I didn't expect this to happen now. At least I have the chance to write this. It's time for me to go. I can't stay any longer._

_Evy, Rick, I hate that I can't see you get married, but know that I wish for the happiest possible life for you. I know that you will raise the greatest children and Evy will stun those Bembridge pricks. Rick, my dear brother, shoot them if they don't accept her. My gift for you is under my bed, on a wooden chest. There's a letter inside. Make good use of it, but don't let Jonathan near it._

_I'm sorry, Jonathan. You are a wonderful friend and the funniest companion pal I've had in a long time, but your business skills are quite lacking. Listen to Evy and please stop drinking so much. My best wishes to you._

_Ardeth, I'm so sorry. I just saw you ride into the desert and won't be here when you return. I wish I could be. Know that you've been a very special friend to me. You were my rock when I feared I'd failed in my role as protector. You've been the one I could turn to when I doubted myself and my destiny. Look after my family here whenever you can, please._

_Love you all._

_Your friend, sister, and companion,_

_Ally O'Connell_


End file.
